Joseph M Leager Jr.

I had a horrible experience with this "lawyer." He was assigned as my public defender years ago as a result of false misdemeanor charges made against me by my tenants in retaliation for me beginning eviction proceedings against them. I had just started my own business at that time and was not yet t...urning over a profit and had no choice but to turn to the Public Defender's Office for help. I assumed Leager would guide me thru the legal process competently, diligently and with good faith. I was wrong! I was dissatisfied with what I felt was the apathetic manner in which he was representing me. He rarely initiated communications with me and rarely responded in a timely manner when I initiated communications with him. When he did respond, Leager supplied me with only the bare minimum of details regarding the status of my cases and what his plan of action would be. He appeared to be insulted whenever I expressed disappointment in his "work." My desire for wanting to be included in the plans for my defense was not welcomed. I got the impression he was not accustomed to defending educated people who would question his competence. When I expressed that I no longer wanted him to represent me, rather than having me transferred to a different public defender, Leager set out on what seemed like a very vindictive attack. He quickly, and with the diligence that I would have preferred to see in him with my cases against my tenants, presented to the court a Motion to Withdraw on behalf of the Office of the Public Defender as Counsel. Leager had another pd (Brandan O'Neill) present the motion at the time of the hearing on his behalf. The presentation was overly dramatic in that O'Neill made it seem like my expression of my dissatisfaction with Leager's legal representation was so egregious that this motion is one that is extremely unusual for the PD's office to make. O'Neill also stated that, in all his 13 years as a pd, he could not recall a similar motion being made by his office. Really??? Could it be because the PD's office is NOT accustomed to representing educated people who instinctively know when they're being cheated of a good defense??? Due to Leager's and O'Neill's brilliant manipulation of the facts during the presentation of the motion hearing, as well as what I saw as a merciless and biased judge, they were able to have their motion granted. Therefore, they were able to withdraw as counsel from my current cases, and I was forbidden to use the services of the PD's office ever again. I had to either represent myself or hire a private attorney. Would you want to hire an apathetic attorney who is ruthless toward you as his client instead of toward the other litigant in your case because you won't lavish this egotistical lawyer with pretentious praise of his haphazard work???

I had a forgery case. It was a very complicated case. I was falsely accused of forging a mortgage document. He did not try to suppress the evidence or attempt to dismiss the case as he advised me he would do several times. He lied to me several times saying my ex wife's name was off of our mortgage a...t the same time saying she had no motive to accuse me; meanwhile the bank was still coming after her after a bankruptcy. He told me that the superior court was a "kangaroo court". He told me that my "ex wife would look more innocent to the jury". In the court room he jokes around with prosecutors as if they're long time friends. He didnt look at the video evidence until three days before trial and said to me " i probably could have helped you if id looked at it sooner. He left a message on my phone regarding the case. He told me he could not explain the legalities of my case to the jury implying they would only look at whether or not i signed it vs what really happened that she gave me permission and said she wanted nothing to do with the house. On top of all that there was no intent and no defraud committed. Two things that were required to be proven by the state. So to scare me into the plea he called the jury stupid and basically told me he was incompetent to explain my case to the jury for me to take the plea. meanwhile I'm being falsely accused and we had a winning case. DO NOT HIRE THIS MAN HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT HIS CLIENTS and he's taking way too many cases to care as he is a public defender.