Thomas A Pavics

I had to have the judge in my case review his bill, because he padded it with long hours spent on "background research" that was basically him educating himself for no valid reason (at least not valid for my case). He charged TRIPLE his estimated charges for a case where he barely seemed prepared, i...f at all. A drunk monkey with brain damage could have won my case, and yet he dragged things out in court, at his highest billing rate, for DAYS. I have seen nearly identical cases dismissed in under two hours. I ultimately paid over $10K for something that should have been $3K TOPS.

I have two main issues with Mr. Pavics. Firstly, I paid far and away more than opposing counsel charged for the case, and far and away more than his estimate. He also billed me ignoring what I had already given him, and has yet to address this discrepancy many months later. Secondly, his court...room behavior was embarrassing to me. He mocked a sitting judge, while in court, quipping that The Honorable Peter Buchsbaum (since retired) was "only useful for family matter involving property line disputes". This was apparently meant to indicate that in Mr. Pavics opinion Judge Buchsbaum was only qualified to hear real estate matters, and not competent in family court. He also engaged in name calling of the opposing side, in a manner I can only describe as childish and embarrassing. It is worth noting that while Mr. Pavics was able to win his case (it was a trivial case to win), the damage left behind in his wake, and the curiously large bill I incurred, make him a regrettable choice.

I do not want to give enough details for him to identify me. I had similar experiences to other reviewers. Hopefully this is enough detail to allow the review. (1) He misrepresented an agreement with another attorney to the court, in a consent order. (2) He refused to correct the consent orde...r, despite it adversely affecting a minor child. (3) After signing a contract for $3,000, he demanded over TRIPLE that amount, basically claiming the case took longer than he anticipated. (4) Over 20% of that overage was for research, on an issue that clearly did not need researching, and was not to my benefit. I have other details, but I am not comfortable with him reading this and identifying me. I have worked with many attorneys in my professional life--and NONE come close to this level of deceitful behavior. Avoid him, or you'll regret it.

He misrepresented agreements between me and another party to the court in a motion. When I told him I didn't want to act in bad faith, he shrugged it off, saying you basically roll the dice on a change just to see if you can get more, and that I was misunderstood bad faith. All other attorneys I spok...e with disagreed, and one stated that he was both a friend of Mr. Pavics, and that Mr. Pavics is "well known for playing those types of games". Of course this complicated matters and ran up my legal fees. Then he misrepresented to court that I hadn't paid him. This bewildered me. I had both bank and mail receipts to prove my case. I still had to waste a day and legal fees for nothing.