Gaurav S Bali

Gaurav Bali

Dear Mr. O (I am aware of your name but respect your desire to remain anonymous). Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations and regret that you feel dissatisfied with the representation you received. However, I strongly stand by the quality of our work and the effort invested in your case. You had a challenging case with (1) a pending Domestic Violence Temporary Restrianing Order against you, (2) a spouse who did not work much, if at all, during your long-term marriage, (3) supervised visitation with your children, (4) child and spousal support orders, and (5) an attorney's fees request. On top of that, you also alleged domestic violence against your spouse. I have dealt with this exact scenario in many cases; you were not the exception. Important documents were sent to you in a timely manner, and while we aim to provide full context whenever possible, it is also expected that clients communicate questions or concerns as they arise. Generally, when we receive emails from an opposing attorney, we simply forward those emails to clients. We do not spend time explaining each and every email in an effort to keep clients' costs down because we also do our best to stretch the deposit out for as long as possible. That is exactly what occurred in your case. Strategic decisions and deadlines were addressed with you extensively based on the emails that specifically tracked the motion for support and fees, and I gave you specific items to work on with my assistant. Given the above, let me first state that we had in-depth discussions with you about strategy and I made myself available to you as needed (as reflected in the numerous emails, aside from calls and texts). I am a trial attorney and know the level of detail required to convey the upside and downside risks in various scenarios. In response, you were unequivocal in your desire to settle the restraining order filed and issued against you outside of court, reduce litigation costs, and undertake private mediation. Overall, you did not want to escalate the conflict. Nonetheless, I am sorry if I was unclear about anything, but your questions and concerns were definitely answered. While you wanted to mediate, you also wanted to file a Request for Domestic Violence Restraining Order against your spouse because you also had a TRO against you. Your increased agitation with the situation was clear (supervised visitation and a TRO) and your demands on me increased; you wavered between litigation and finding a solution. Thus, strategic decisions were made with your best interests in mind based on the information available at each stage. And since we were still negotiating with opposing counsel about her TRO against you, we stalled on filing one against her which I later realized was your main feeling of disappointment. I have litigated cross requests for restraining orders throughout my career and made you aware of the possible outcomes. I can say confidentally that we achieved good results during the time we worked together. The issue was that the path forward was not clear because you wanted your spouse to dismiss the DV/TRO before you decided to file one against her. I recognize that expectations around communication and clarity in the overall process can vary, and we will continue to evaluate ways to improve the client experience. We are committed to delivering professional, diligent representation, and we regret that this was not your impression. We wish you the best moving forward. -Attorney Gaurav Bali