Joseph Lambert Pittera

I hired Joseph Pittera in a desperate situation to handle an emergency custody RFO for my children based on serious allegations. This was a complete disaster. He took my money and did almost nothing. Most of the time, he was unavailable, unresponsive, and too “busy” to handle my case. I needed pro...fessional help during an urgent, critical time, and instead, I got ignored, abandoned, and left to deal with everything on my own. Personal excuses, like his wife being in the hospital, do not justify neglecting a client’s emergency case. I trusted him to represent me and protect my children, and he failed completely. I regret hiring him. If you need a lawyer who will actually show up, respond, and fight for you, look elsewhere. This is one of the worst legal experiences I’ve ever had.

Joseph took on my really small case when other lawyers wouldn't. He helped me work out a settlement that prevented me from going to court and getting what I want. His paralegal, Cathy is amazing as well. They both were professionally and personally supportive. They made everything go a fast as possib...le, so I had to do as little work as I needed. Joseph was very honest, upfront and never tried to pressure me and let me make my own decisions. Great family law lawyer.

We went to Joseph Piterras law office in Torrance desperate for advise and convinced that we would never see a dime of the money owed to us from a business partner who had stolen everything! We were wrong. The office was nice and the staff was incredible. Mr. Pittera got us every penny possible and ...within only a few weeks. He was far less pricey than I had anticipated and was very easy to deal with and we felt like he had out back every step of the way. He also made himself available whenever we needed him and seemed to squeeze us in no matter how busy he was. We have recommended him to friends since and we will continue to recommend him forever. He is our lawyer for life!!!!

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.