Joseph Lambert Pittera

I was a client of Mr. Pittera's around the same time that the other reviewer who entered a complaint on this site was represented by Mr. Pittera. When I saw this review I felt compelled to ask Mr. Pittera what had occurred with that particular client that they were so unhappy with his performance. ...My own experience with Mr. Pittera was nothing but professional, affordable and successful. Mr. Pittera was always available to me. He performed an exemplary job on my case. I managed to have my many properties reorganized and I emerged from bankruptcy retaining almost every single item of property that I entered the bankruptcy with. The key was that I had income and with income Mr. Pittera was able to successfully negotiate deals with my banks so that I could keep my properties. When I asked Mr. Pittera about these other clients who are disgruntled he told me that they owned a shopping center in Compton. Their original property was burned down in the 1992 riots. They obtained a loan from a bank to rebuild and they built this big shopping center which they had hoped to be able to rent out to other tenants. Unfortunately for them their building was not fully rented and they did not have the income to be able to sustain a reorganization in bankruptcy. Mr. Pittera told me that he explained this time and again to these clients but they did not understand. It was the United States Trustee that ultimately converted the case to Chapter 7 because those clients were unable to provide sufficient income to be able to receive approval from the bankruptcy court for their plan of reorganization. This was not Mr. Pittera's fault - it was the fault of the clients who did not have sufficient income to reorganize their estate. As far as the more personal allegation for which Mr. Pittera was suspended, this is a personal matter and had nothing to do with his practice of law. Whoever wrote the review clearly does not understand the law and his seeking to blame Mr. Pittera for their own failings.

Mr. Pittera represented my parents in a Bankruptcy, in 1998. After working hard all of their lives, they were on the brink of losing their home and the 130k equity they had in it. Mr. Pittera represented them in a Bankruptcy filing. Nonetheless, they were left with no choice but to sell their home......at least they had the equity to try and move on. Instead os moving my parents into a different type of BK, which would allo them to sell the house, he lifted the stay (court protection) on the house. The bank moved in and sold it. My parents lost everything includiung their equity. Mr. Pittera immediately filed for BK, which made it impossiblefor my parenst to have any form of financial recourse against him. What was worse...we later found out his license had been suspended during the time he was representing my parents, which he never disclosed. According to the state bar, it was for making terrorist threats against his wife. I, myself, am now an attorney and know how egregious his actions were, as a member of the bar...in addition to how devastating they were to my family. I can not believe he is still allowed to practice.

My house was going to be up for sale on the courthouse steps in 30 days and thank goodnes Mr pittera was referred to me as a good BK Attorney. I contacted him and made an appointment. He directed me to a nonprofit financial counseling service and from there I saw him and he did an evaluation of my ci...rcumstances. Joe gave me the opportunity to think through the consequences of a BK and after much deliberation, I called him back and we proceeded with the BK. Joe was thorough and professinally compassionate. He and his para-legal held my hand the whole way through the process. I am so grateful for the work he did and for the way he helped me get through the emotional trauma of feeling like such a failure. He has stayed in contact and has worked with me on any questions I have regarding the collaterial effects of the BK. He saved my house from the foreclosure sale, allowing me to sell it as a short sale