Vaughn Craig Taus

We hired Vaughn Taus to handle our case. As soon as he had our retainer he turned everything over to his assistant, Joe. Unfortunately, Joe is learning on-the-job and does not have any formal legal training. According to him, he was a mortgage broker when the market went south and started working for... Mr. Taus. He relies on the software to plug the figures into the schedules. Every case is handled "cookie cutter" which poses some serious problems if there are any questions about any figures on the paperwork. They also "batch file" many cases at once. That way, Mr. Taus only makes the trip to Santa Barbara when there are several cases to handle. If something happens and the case is continued, he does not show up. That happened to us. His office was given our schedule. My husband is a pilot and works out of state. We provided Mr. Taus with his work schedule and were assured the paperwork would be filed according to the schedule. Apparently, hearing are scheduled exactly three weeks after filing. The paperwork was not filed on time and we called their office several times to ask about the date. We did not get any response. It was "batch filed" and the hearing date was during the time my husband was away. We called to point out the problem and Joe told us he would continue the hearing, that it was no big deal. We called Mr. Taus' office before the hearing and did not hear back. We appeared at the hearing and he did not show up! With no communication whatsoever to let us know he wouldn't be there. We felt completely lost. The judge reprimanded us because the paperwork was not prepared correctly and advised us that we needed to re-do our paperwork and the hearing was continued. When we realized how grossly mishandled our case was, we hired a new attorney who was actually in court for another party that afternoon. He handled our case correctly - always in close communication with us, actually answered our questions, and knew what the heck he was doing! During our case, we were trying to work out a loan modification with Wells Fargo Mortgage. They were not able to speak with us without written permission from Mr. Taus. When we requested this authorization from Mr. Taus he did not respond. We went into his office and Joe told us that he was unable to give us permission because it was "outside the scope" of his representation. However, we could pay them $3500 and they would do the modification for us. (Aha! We realized they are getting retainers for the initial filing then again to handle the mortgage modification....quite a scheme they have going.) Most people would likely hand over the money because they don't know any better. But I had spoken with other who had been through the process and knew it was something we could easily handle ourselves. And we have. We will file a fee arbitration with SLO County to get our money back. Vaughn Taus is a terrible lawyer.

I would never recommend this lawyer; late to court, didn't advise me of date change in hearings; rummaging thru papers during hearing; his cell phone went off during court. Very unprofessional as far as I am concerned. Went to a San Luis Obispo Arbitrator, which that arbitrator ended up in jail. ... Guess don't have a lot of faith in either one, no not guess, I don't. Judge was going to hold me in contempt of court when "on the stand" he says "my client and I have had issues" what attorney does that. The concern was the other attorney wanted to know why documents weren't submitted, when I was never told to submit any of that to him. I dismissed him after that day in court and represented my self and the case was dismissed. Encouraged me to take my home out of the trust, when in fact that is what my late husband's wishes were for me to leave it in the trust; I would never never recommend this lawyer. I only able to make small payments, of which he accepted then turned the balance over to a collection agency.