Timothy Brian Rien

I had a really bad experience with Tim as my attorney. I was accused of a crime and hired him after my arraignment. I chose him because he quoted me at about half the price of any other lawyer I spoke with. A few days later, he explained that this was a "pre-charging" rate (what you would charge a cl...ient who was being investigated but not yet formally charged) and that I actually owed him twice the initial rate he quoted. While I probably could have had him better clarify what he was asking for in the beginning, it seems dishonest and manipulative to give me a pre-charging rate after arraignment, since a pre-charging rate would be irrelevant for what I was hiring him for. Tim also encouraged me also to pay $4,000 to a private investigator he knew to help with my defense. I was skeptical but Tim insisted it was a good idea. In the end, none of the information he collected was used in my defense. Tim didn't appear at a single of my court appearances, but sent other less experienced lawyers in his place (and this was for a serious felony charge). He had me waive my right to appear in court, claiming that judges subconsciously would come to associate my face with criminality if I came to my court dates. Another lawyer suggested that Tim actually probably didn't want to draw my attention to the fact that he didn't personally intend to come to court for me at all. On one occasion, the lawyer he sent arrived two hours late with no communication. On another, his office sent me a notice of my next court date saying I should not come in person and they would represent me as usual. I went out of state for a business trip and emailed the night before to ask if I could get an update after court. Then they told me I actually was supposed to appear in the morning so I could accept the DA's plea bargain (which I already told them I didn't want to accept). I was confused and terrified because it would have been impossible for me to return on time, and because I wondered why no one had remembered or understood I didn't want to take the plea. Tim wrote me a rather diplomatic email apologizing for the office's poor communication. That was literally the last time I ever heard from him during my case. I thanked him for the email but asked again what had gone wrong exactly, and he had Melissa Adams (another lawyer from the firm) write me a email saying that communication error had actually been my fault because I was supposed to contact them again in the meantime (which no one had ever told me). I asked for clarification and she ignored my email. I believe it was basically a good cop/bad cop routine Tim put together to try to hide how disorganized they were. I often had to wait several days to a week to get answers to questions I had. The crime I was accused of was supposedly caught on a surveillance video. The footage would have completely exonerated me, but someone from the prosecution's side destroyed it. Even with this, Tim's firm wasn't able to neogtiate my case effectively, and I did end up taking the plea bargain in the end out of frustration. Now I have a criminal record. I really regret not going with a public defender because I know they could not have done any worse and I wouldn't have spent $14,000. Had I decided to push forward, I definitely would have hired someone else for trial. I frankly felt as at odds with Tim as I did with the police and prosecutor. I felt like they already saw me as a criminal and didn't believe or care about what had actually happened. Even if the outcome had been the same, I wish I had gone with a lawyer who had better communication skills and appeared to actually care about my case. I would not recommend him for these reasons.