W. Russell Van Camp

I wanted to initiate a wrongful employment termination lawsuit against my former employer. After nine years with glowing performance reviews, I had been terminated without cause. I was fired with $100000 owed to me and documented on my pay stubs. I went to Van Camp and raided my retirement account to... pay the $10000 retainer fee. My husband (who assisted me throughout the case) and I thought the fee was high but we both believed a big retainer fee would mean a big response. Van Camp told us that we could reasonably expect $60000 after attorney costs from the $100000 owed to me. Over the one-year plus period we were involved with this case, we initially thought we had an open and shut case that a first-year law student could have won. We provided Van Camp with most of the documents and research needed. The trouble was that we could not get him to do much if anything at all after he took our money. He did not file any initial legal paperwork other to send a letter. The opposiiton responded by filing a trumped up lawsuit as a defense. We became defendants early and remained defendants throughout We could not get Van Camp to show us he was prepared to defend against their claims that we believed had no bearing or merit on the case. Over the year, Van Camp would take some brief action if we sent him a nasty email. We got limited legal advice from him even when one of the opposition business owners for whom I used to work made a cash offer to settle (in a cafe without lawyers present). When we made him aware of the settlement offer, he made little attempt to negotiate it for us even though it would have added another $10000 to his fees (we estimated from the time he put into our case that he would have made $10000 an hour rather than the $5000 an hour we ended up paying him). With pressure from us, he finally did a deposition of the owners prior to the scheduled trial date. Of course, we provided the questions for him. Again, a first-year law student could have turned their responses into perjury if any effort was put into it. As we headed into trial as DEFENDANTS in a case WE INITIATED, we realized we were going to get hammered because of Van Camp's lack of preparation. We had a different attorney, who specialized in employment law, review our case pior to the trial date. He pointed out glaring procedural omissions from the Superior Court Case Summary. He also pointed out that it was too late to change attorneys and that a judge would not allow it at that point. I was scared about going to trial as defendants in a case we initiated. I still had to work in the community as a business manager with clients associated with my former employer. I could not risk having my reputation further battered by Van Camp's lack of effort. We accepted the opposition's offer of a mutual walkaway. Van Camp appeared almost giddy when we met him for the last time and he told us, "Of course, you won't get back your retainer fee." Had we known about this website and the "Caution" rating Van Camp had received, we would have never done business with him. We not only lost our $10000 in retainer fees but thousands more owed to me. My husband and I recommend that you do not do business with this attorney. Battered