Ralph Eugene Harrison II

Needed to retain a lawyer in Los Angeles- I live out of State. He said he needed a retainer (no problem) gave me his Bank of America account # address etc. to deposit the retainer- signed the retainer contract- faxed it (as requested) deposited the money (as requested) and he never answered my call a...gain!!!

I should've known to run from this atty when he asked that I meet him outside of Starbucks to give him the paperwork for my case... unprofessional. I was referred to Ralph by a friend. After speaking to him about my case, I hired him to represent me for time was of the essence. I gave Ralph $5k to f...ile a response to a complaint on my behalf. My ex had a temporary custody order giving him custody of our kids. I asked Ralph to file an appeal and gave him an additional $1,000. He didnt file the appeal. I asked him for my money back. He said, "Well, the case isnt over so youll just have to give it back to me. However, he did file a response to the initial complaint. We had the hearing; and the case was moved to another county and I got my kids. The case was ongoing so for each additional thing he did on my case, he asked for $2500. The case involved my children so he took advantage of that and simply gauged me for money. When the case was moved to L.A. he needed to file the response for my case. He asked for an additional $2500. I asked him why do I have to pay more money when he could simply file the same response in the L.A. court. He said if something had changed in the complaint he would need to address it in a new response. A deadline had to be met for the filing of the response so i gave him the money. I began to call and text him repeatedly to see if we needed to discuss anything regarding the case because the date for the hearing was quickly approaching. He stopped texting me back and taking my phone calls. Nevertheless, I showed up to court for the hearing, but he DIDN'T even appear. He never filed a response or substituition of atty either, so it appeared as if I had no legal representation. The case had been taken off the calendar and Ralph told me nothing. As I left the courtroom, I went downstairs to get a copy of everything that had been done on my case and thats when I found out that he had NOT filed the response at all or a substitution of atty which is why all correspondence came to me from my ex's atty.. I saw him as I was leaving the courthouse; he was there for another case in another courtroom. He saw me but acted as if he didn't. I was hurt, upset, disappointed, almost in tears, so I said nothing but then decided I needed to. I called his name -- he kept walking. I called out a 2nd time; he didn't turn around. I caught up with him, confronted him and asked why he hadn't returned any of my calls/ texts or tell me my case had been taken off the calendar, although I already knew the answer--it was because he never filed anything.. His response was I guess I shouldve told you. I told him I wanted my money back. He said the case isn't over--knowing your ex husband its going to get put back on the calendar--lets wait and see. I walked away thinking to myself how could he do this to me, a single mother. As time went on, the case was put back on the calendar, I didnt want to use Ralph anymore but at this point he had $8500 of my money and I didnt want to pay a new attorney another retainer, so I unfortunately had to stick with him. The day of my hearing, he showed up as my case was ENDING. He was there with me all of 10 mins. Prior to him arriving, my ex husband's atty assisted us in the completion of our agreement which was very awkward and embarrassing. As we left the courtroom, Ralph skimmed over the agreement then asked me if I was ok with it. He shouldve read the agreement thoroughly but only flipped through the pages and said ok, I guess we're finished here. A few months later, the friend that referred me to Ralph had a case almost identical to mine. She saw how he handled my case and retained another attorney to represent her. There's a lot of info that I left out--unethical issues. I was NOT at all satisfied with his representation. He went to court with me only 1 time and filed only 1 thing in my case for $8.500.00 and I had to pay a $478 filing fee for that initial response.