James Jeffery Peters

I hired this attorney for a wrongful termination case, after dealing with him for many months and having received from him the worst service ever in my life, I can say confidently that this lawyer is dangerously incompetent beyond description, unfortunately I discovered that too late. James J. Peters... lied repeatedly to me and my spouse, assuring he would take my case to trial if he wouldn't get "a great settlement" for us ; but when he was unable to reach settlement, he attempted to abandon my case, thus badly injuring my case and costing me and my spouse a huge amount of money without accomplishing anything. He billed me thousands of dollars for false services that he never performed. Further, when we insisted he keep his promises to us, he lied even more by saying that he did not promise us any thing. James was also lazy and arrogant; he failed to properly investigate my case, did little legal research, and in fact, relied mostly on research we had to do ourselves. He often ignored our communications, and at one time billed us for his "costs of service" when he tried to improperly withdraw from the case. He showed profound ignorance of the mediation process and was not all aggressive; James often seemed intimidated by the opposing lawyer, and his laziness and dishonesty badly injured our ability to prosecute our claim. We honestly advise against hiring him for any case, we lost a small fortune because of this attorney that we could have used to send our 2 children to a decent school.

I hired this attorney without searching his background and the feedbacks he received from other clients and it was a big mistake. He cost me more than $20,000 in case expenses and fees without accomplishing any thing for me. I went to James Peters just for a consultation and he persuaded me (actually... I should say tricked me) to hire him and to file a claim against my employer because my case in his own words "is very strong" but within a week after signing the retainer agreement his communications became very rare and totally different in tune. The only thing that James actually did for my case was writing a simple 3 pages demand letter and that was a clumsy work, it missed many essential facts about my case and that letter by itself weakened my case. James then started to put pressure on me to settle my case for a small amount offered by the employer to close the case. When I tried to argue with James that my case and evidence are strong he stopped completely to communicate with me, basically I got a zero response from him to my dozens of emails, however I was able to have conversions with James only twice afterwards over the phone, almost always when I call him James tried to avoid talking to me and referred me to his staff or sometimes his partner and they were rude and unprofessional and kept giving me false information about "progress" of my case for months. I have experience in life and I think I can not be easily tricked, but this person has a remarkable ability to deceive, I remained with him for several months because he always produced good excuses for his failure to make any progress, after several months I found out that he did nothing for my case, when I asked him why he did not call any witness from my list of witnesses or utilize any evidence I gave him? he would say that "is unnecessary" or he "overlooked" that, this lasted for months, I finally realized that he did not work for my case but actually against me to put pressure on me to accept my opponent's offer to settle the case. Mr. James Peters strangely wanted me to accept a mediator's report prepared with the help of my opponent as is and to agree to everything including false information in it without question!! I dealt with a few attorneys before and none of them was as bad as Mr. James J. Peters. I eventually had to fire him because it was clear to me that I am losing the case because of Mr. Peters's lack of effort to work for it. The expenses I incurred by that time were more than the initial amount offered by the employer to settle the case. It became clear to me that he was only after a quick money with minimal work. After I terminated him, James even refused to be terminated, then sent me an outrageous bill for "services" he never provided, he only wrote a clumsy demand 3 pages letter to the employer that probably toke only 30 minutes of his time and that was it, he is shamelessly still asking me to pay him for his "services". I have been with another attorney for just a few weeks now, he was able to negotiate a six figure settlement with the employer; so clearly my case is strong it only needed some one with a genuine interest to work for it. I have no choice here but to give Mr. Peters a one star rating just to have my feedback posted, I wish there was a box for HELL NO in recommendations I would have definitely used it. I sincerely hope no other one will be victimized by Mr. Peters; it has been a nightmare to me.

First of all I'd like to thank Avvo very much for this service, your service is definitely great and appreciated, this web site is really helping the public through these valuable feedbacks so one can make an informed decision before hiring an attorney. Mr. James J. Peters just cost me a little fo...rtune in case expenses without accomplishing anything for me. He would ignore all your attempts to communicate with him after the initial contact, consequently he will know only a superficial idea about your case and you will lose much of the grounds for your case because he does not file your time-sensitive claims in a timely manner, he does not do due diligence of researching the case and presenting all and the important evidence that you have therefore your case would lose much of its strength and it will be just a botched claim, and if you complain about his botched work he would threaten that he will withdraw from the case that he already ruined. At the mediation conference he appeared as though he was working for the other party in an effort to end the case as early as possible so he can get his contingency cut. if you've signed with the Attorney already, maybe you already have seen some of the problems of this lawyer yourself, but for those who haven't hired him yet, here is a summary of my painful experience with Mr. James J. Peters who represented me in my employment case: 1. The initial call with this attorney seemed good, I told him my case, he seemed to have a genuine concern and belief in my case, I signed a retainer agreement, and I thought from the way he spoke I would be in good hands, I was very wrong unfortunately. 2. I provided all the needed information and the evidences, which included straightforward written ADMITTANCE by my former manager that he discriminated against me which I obtained legally from the HR department of my former employer, that document alone was enough to win my case, but in top of that I have many other evidences and witnesses that strongly support my case. 3. Six months has gone by and I have heard nothing from either James Peters or his office. I e-mail, I call and I get no return call or e-mail, he ignored all my attempts to contact him, basically ZERO communication 4. On the sixth month, I received an email from James Peters office for the first time informing me that the employer wants to settle the case through a mediator, no other details but he encouraged me to attend. 5. On the Mediation meeting date was the BIG surprise, James did not show any support for me at all, actually he sided with the other party to close the case early so he can get his cut quickly, the employer offered a low 5 figures number to settle the case and James Peters put his pressure on me to accept that but I refused and I walked away from the meeting. 6. Mr. James Peters continued his pressure on me through phone calls and emails to accept the low settlement offer from the employer, but I resisted and fired him eventually and I hired another attorney because I knew that my case was strong and is worth much more than what the employer is offering. 7. My new attorney negotiated a better settlement with the employer and got me a much higher settlement, I am not allowed to disclose the exact dollar amount, because according to the terms of the settlement it should remain confidential, but I can say it is great, it is in the high six figures range. My honest advice, avoid this lawyer at all cost, for the same case I got a high six figures settlement through another attorney, MR. James Peters did basically nothing for my case and tried to persuade me to take a fraction of that amount to settle the same case too early, this way Mr. James Peters could hide his incompetency and he could take a quick and easy 40% contingency cut. Beware, and choose your attorney wisely.

I hired Mr. James J. Peters and it was clear soon after we started that he had no real interest in actually doing much work at all on the case. He seemed to only be interested in getting a quick settlement so that he could take his cut. He very rarely returned my phone calls and when I did finally ge...t to talk to him he confused my case with other cases and was not able to know what was going on with it. Mr. Peters told me that the employer would probably want to settle the case real quick. Soon after he filed the law suit the employer made a "low ball" offer to our side. Mr. Peters began to put the pressure on me to settle as soon as possible. He concealed many important case facts and they did not appear in all his communications, he selectively presented information in order to accomplish his goal and to get me go along with him but by doing so he ruined my chances for a good case and settlement. It seemed that his only goal was to get his contingeny fee while doing as little work as possible. It was clear that his business was all about getting clients to settle quickly so he could get his quick percentage. I have consulted with other attornies who have told us (me and my spouse) that the case and the evidence that we have should have resulted in a much higher settlement than we got. I honestly would not recommend him to handle any case.

I wish I had known of this site before I hired James J. Peters to make money off of me and do nothing for it. Words cannot express how dissatisfied I was with his services. First he does not handle the case at all. He makes you believe that he will use his so called experience to get a great deal. Ho...wever in reality he hands the case off to someone else then ignores all your attempts to explain the case facts then just settles and takes whatever is offered from the defendant employer. When I was told by him it looks best to take whatever the employer is offering and to close the case I asked what about all the things you promised me when we talked before I hired you. Basically I was told I could take the case to trial and pay $20,000 more for trial. After I already paid this hack $11000 just in case filing expenses to basically get the same deal I could have without an attorney there was no way I was going to pay him more. I just wish this prevents someone else from wasting their time and money on a guy that basically just runs a small settlement mill and provides nothing for his clients. Funny thing, his slogan is "Protecting Employee Rights"!