John Robert Setlich

John was consistently unprepared, unresponsive, and nearly impossible to reach. I rarely spoke with him directly unless there was a problem he was responsible for. I mainly spoke with his staff. I was billed for calls/emails seeking legal advice from John, yet I almost never received the advice. I of...ten felt ignored, dismissed, and left to handle complex issues on my own, with only his paralegal who cannot provide legal advice. Before I hired John, I asked if he has worked with the minors’ counsel assigned to my case. He said yes, he currently has another case with her. Later, when I asked minors’ counsel directly, she told me she has never worked with him before. This was so troubling. Here are just SOME of the many serious issues I experienced with John Setlich as my attorney: Before a hearing, John went on a planned vacation and didn't file a continuance in advance, despite my multiple requests to do so to protect my case. He also told minors’ counsel that I wanted a 730 evaluation instead of an evidentiary hearing- something he never discussed with me. I had to personally call minors’ counsel to clarify that he never spoke to me about it. On the day of the hearing, he sent an appearance attorney. She was in a car, wearing a beach style tank top with a small child visible in her back seat. The judge denied the last minute continuance and the hearing went on. The appearance attorney openly stated on the record that she "knew nothing about my case." I had repeatedly asked John’s office to let me brief the appearance attorney beforehand, anticipating this exact situation, but that never happened. The judge also struck my declaration past 10 pages because John failed to file a request for permission to exceed the page limit- something I had asked him to do multiple times to protect my case. This severely limited my ability to present evidence, including evidence that my daughter was brought around a man who was being charged with crimes against children. Adding to the embarrassment, the appearance attorney was heard telling the child in the backseat “you’ll be able to hear this case going on right now." I was mortified. The rest of the hearing was such a humiliating mess. For a different hearing that WE filed, his office FAILED to serve my ex the orders until the day BEFORE the DEADLINE despite having ample time! His office called me and asked if I could FIND SOMEONE to do it that day or I'd have to pay over $200 for them to do it! After I complained due to this being THEIR FAILURE, John agreed to handle it for free. Last week, during ANOTHER hearing- John arrived late, unprepared, and occupied with handling another client's case. He had me following him around the courthouse to different floors as he went into court for someone else. He also began discussing settlement talks with my ex's lawyer without my authorization to even begin settlement talks/entertain it. When I disagreed with their proposals he became visibly frustrated and frazzled, throwing his hands in the air infront of everyone in the hallway, even asking my husband to talk with me! Despite me making it very clear that I needed him to testify and present my side in front of the judge, he didn't. On the second day of this hearing, he appeared remotely while I appeared in person. It hindered my ability to speak to him to relay important info to the judge like my wishes, any clarifications, etc. When the judge asked if John had anything to say/present before she made orders, he said no! I ended up having to speak up to the judge myself! My ex’s attorney presented a whole speech about how great of a father he is and made several false claims about me that hurt my case/credibility and John didn't even clear any of it up! John Setlitch did not do the same for me- no big heartfelt speech, no presentation of the facts, nothing! I'm now filing a complaint with the State Bar regarding his representation.

***ALERT TO ALL FORMER AND CURRENT CLIENTS*** ***PLEASE REVIEW ALL YOUR ORIGINAL AND FINAL INVOICE STATEMENTS*** I hired the law offices of John R Setlich based on the great reviews on Yelp, entrusting him with several cases from child support matters, restraining orders, and a civil suit: paying o...ver $35,650 in funds over time. Unfortunately, our attorney client-relationship derailed when the attorney breached our contract by failing to provide me with the level of legal representation that was promised. After terminating services and receiving my final statement, I discovered several discrepancies between the original and the final invoices. The discovery led me to over $6,756.50 of pilled on charges that were NOT on the original invoice statements and $5,864 of missing payments that were not applied to my account. Since I brought the matter to their attention, they refused to take my calls by continuously hanging up on me. We are going on four months and have yet to receive a refund for overpayment. This law firm is taking advantage of their clients. A complaint has been filed with the State Bar of California.

Based on John's good reviews, I hired him in April. He not only did not prepare my case, he didn't even know my case, completely unreachable, irresponsible and entirely negligent as well as delusional. I have not talked to him for more than 30 minutes from April to July. And when hearing mid July com...es, he didn't even know why we were there in court. Judge asked him questions, he could not answer. Judge demanded answers as to the evidence provided raising concerns to the criminal accusations raised in a family case, he simply said "aren't we going to have a trial to address this case? " to avoid answering cuz he didn't look at my case thus having answers and embarrassed himself as well as me altogether. He even contemplated not showing up entirely for the utter lack of preparation. His office took 2 weeks vacation in early June then he took 2 weeks vacation mid June. Then upon the return early July, he had a family funeral, gone another 2 weeks. My hearing comes, we walked in like total strangers. He acted like it's just unimportant and it's just a casual walk on street, no biggie and my case specifics are irreverent... Until judge asked him several questions when my case was called, he acted like let's just talk about this stuff at trial not now. From April to may, my case sits. From may to June, paralegal worked on it forever despite it's simplicity and full of obvious and idiotic errors, and John was nowhere to be found. From June to July, everyone was on vacation. July to hearing in mid July, playing disappearance and tried to convince me that it's just preliminary hearing, it's not important. Then the rest was history. The hearing was an utter disaster. John didn't even know why he was there in the eyes of the judge, certain opinions were formed and with all eyes watching. It hurt my case tremendously by not having a defense to the fabricated declaration from the opposing party submitted, and it hurt my case further by not having a defense from my own attorney at times of hearing when the judge demanded answers to the concerns of the court. The whole thing was an utter disaster. This is a case of negligence, misconduct as well as a case of defrauding its own client. I'm going to report to BAR with my case details and all communications. Whether he dropped my case only and not others, or that he over committed and dropped my case, or he had done this to many people, it doesn't matter anymore. His attitude of utter negligence was absolutely vivid and utterly blunt. When I pleaded with him to please look at my case and study the facts 3 days prior, 2 days prior and 1 day prior writing up summary to assist him with the content he must learn in order to defend me and fight for me in court. I did not get a response, and evidently, he didn't do that and continued to enjoy his weekend as usual so to show up on Monday hearing like a walk in a park with a careless demeanor that everyone in the court knew that he didn't even look at the case unable to answer any questions from the judge. It was awkward, embarrassing and damaged my case. Such acts at the important turning point of people's lives under devastating circumstances with their livelihood is not one to be played with , especially when life and death is involved considering illnesses and having a roof over their head. These dire issues are to be taken with respect, not just legally, but morally specifically. If you can't do the case, don't want the case, have no time for the case, don't lead your client on. If you know the hearing is around the corner, read it. If you can't read it insisting on a vacation, then do it after you come back. If you still don't do it after you come back, then prepare for the hearing so you have answers to handle the questioning of the judge. None doing, negligent and absolutely incompetent. Just deplorable.