Jeffrey Thomas Vanderveen

I hired Jeffery Vanderveen, January 2015. Upon my first few conversations with him, he came out of the gate as a very strong and competent Probate litigator. He stated that he knew Att'y Noel Allen, the attorney assisting my brother / Trustee and who had 'illegally' assumed the role as Successor Tr...ustee when I was, as stated on the 'cover page', as Successor Trustee. He further stated that Att'y Allen was incompetent and not an attorney that he would hesitate in litigating my case with. Att'y Vanderveen required a $4,500 retainer, which I provided in January 2015. He filed my case, and a hearing at the San Diego Probate Court was scheduled June 30, 2015. Approximately July of 2015, after the June hearing I was notified by Atty' Vanderveen that my retainer was 'expired' and that I needed to deposit additional funds into his account. To say the least, I was livid. He basically filed the case and appeared at that June 30 hearing, and my retainer was 'gone' !!! Basically, I refused to pay him another cent, until I saw results. In March of 2016, and after multiple senseless continuances, I was told by Att'y Vanderveen, that the upcoming July 2016 hearing was going to be the 'win' for us, and demanded the additional $5,000. In that hearing, Att'y Vanderveen did not show, but appeared telephonically and said nothing regarding the issues at hand. No defense whatsoever !!! The case was continued to Dec. of 2016, where Att'y Allen was 'ordered' that he 'must' show the 'court mandated' accounting, or would be removed as Successor Trustee. On Dec. 20 and Dec. 28, 2016, I sent two letters to Att'y Vanderveen, requesting the status of my case. Att'y Vanderveen ignored my requests. I then, in February 2017 contacted the Probate Court, only to find that my case was 'Dismissed w/o Prejudice. This communication w/ the Probate court was two months after that Dec. 2016 hearing, and not a word from Att'y Vanderveen. After 'firing' him, he refused to give me my 'complete' file, physically pushing me in his attempt to extricate the 'complete' file from me. I did eventually get my 'deleted, edited, expurgated' file from him. Why did he find it necessary to literally remove articles from my file before handing it to me, stating, "And don't come back!" You get the picture !!! Stay as far away as possible from this Attorney !!!

Two separate times he over charged me. When I questioned him about the charges he immediately and abruptly responsed "if I'm going to nit pick his fees then get another attorney". I said to him "but I have questions" and he said get another attorney and hung up on me! That was it! Very rude and ab...rupt! He was so nice during the initial consultation. He fired me for questioning his fees but he was more than happy to have a conversation with me concerning those fees before they occurred! Rude, unprofessional, untruthful concerning fees and extremely arrogant. As his client, he failed me because refused to speak to me again concerning his fees -- after he charged me. This is my experience with him. I only retained him for 3 months. He has forced me to drop everything to find another attorney immediately because I have to have one retained by court order. My husband is very sick and close to death and this attorney knows this. He is a very cold person to put me in this situation and as his client I feel he treated me very badly.