Suzanne Shaw Storm

I own an investment property 50/50 with a partner who used to be my handyman, consisting of a Victorian house, and 7 rental units. I put the down payment, and my partner moved into the house. At first everything was fine, until he stopped supplying accounting. statements and tenant/rental info. He... fixed up the inside of the 6 bdrm / 4 bath house he was living in, but never did anything to the rental units that we had agreed on. He rented those units to family members at way below market rates, and later let the yard and property fall into disrepair. He stopped paying his $400.00 monthly rent, and after several years of trying to get him to comply, he started hiding from me, so I finally hired an attorney, Suzanne Storm of Attlesey/Storm. She told me she had a lot of experience in real estate matters and partnerships. She did all the necessary paperwork and filings, and prepared the case for trial, which began a year later. On the day of trial, the opposing attorney offered to settle. As much evidence as we had, Suzanne pushed me to settle as well, and warned that trial could take three days, and we were not sure how the Judge would rule. The opposing attorney was very difficult to work with, and came up with all sorts of crazy reasons why my partner did the things he did. He also made false allegations against me, so she thought it was best to settle, which would save me money in fees. She stated we would settle under the condition that each partner would get a professional appraisal of the property within 30 days, and present it to each other. If a purchase amount could be agreed upon, my partner would purchase my 50% share. If we could not agree to an amount, then the two original appraisers would recommend a third appraiser, and we would be bound by this appraiser’s value, whatever he came up with. Furthermore, my partner would have 90 days to secure financing, and another 60 days to close. If he could not get financing, we would list the property for sale. Additionally, my partner would provide monthly accounting, and bank statements, clean up the yard, and maintain the property. Within 30 days I had my appraisal, but my partner did not. I granted him another two weeks as he requested, but he did not meet that date as well. In the meantime, he had my appraisal, which he claimed represented a value that was too high. I suggested we put the property on the market at my appraiser's determined value and see what happens, but he declined. In the meantime, two months passed with no progress, so I called Suzanne, and advised her he was not complying with the Settlement Agreement, and suggested we go back to court and advise the Judge. Also, I had not received any accounting or bank statements, and mentioned that the property was still in the same poor condition. I then looked up my case online, and it showed settled, with no further court dates scheduled. I was shocked, since it was my opinion it was still an active case, and now I found myself with no recourse to force my partner to comply. Suzanne put another attorney in her office on my case, and after I stated I felt no closer in resolving this matter, then I did when I started the lawsuit, Suzanne became offended, and quit on me. The thing is I was only being honest, I didn't mean to upset her. In addition, my legal bill was almost $60,000.00, and now I was required to hire another attorney, or proceed by myself. She ended up calling a courier to deliver my documents, and we set up a payment plan to pay the balance owed to her. So, here I am, proceeding by myself to get my partner to comply, without her help. After all this money I spent, I can't afford to hire another attorney, and now I don't know what to do. Plus, there's the issue of getting someone to learn and become familiar with my case. I'm wondering now if I should have gone to trial like my instinct originally told me. From: A Distraught & Broke Client