Rate and Review Viola Law Firm, P.C.

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- Serial Malpractice - - Scott - 1/13/2015 - flag as inappropriate - comment
A lawyer at this firm practices serial malpractice as, at the moment, he has at least three such lawsuits pending against him of which I'm aware, including one from myself. He went AWOL preceding my divorce hearings only to emerge one month later suddenly detached from his law firm, espousing the “opportunities” of practicing law as a one-man shop (with 45 cases he claimed were in motion) without the assistance of a paralegal or even a secretary. His unexplained absence caused my divorce to be postponed for two months.  Before the divorce proceedings, this person failed to deliver discovery to opposing counsel until the night before the trial and, subsequently, most of my evidence was excluded—he only produced one real exhibit during the whole trial vs. dozens from my ex-wife. Bruening’s opening arguments to the court consisted of an apology for botching the discovery. Things only went downhill from there. I lost large sums of money because I was hardly able to prove anything in the trial and it became starkly evident that little preparation had been done on my behalf—it was readily apparent he just winged it. Following the trial, he forgot to show up for a hearing with the judge and opposing counsel—and never told me about it—and I was subsequently served (twice!) for contempt without understanding why until I eventually sued him. It has been a real eye-opener to now read the exchange of emails between my lawyer and opposing counsel, that I received in discovery on my malpractice case, where they are openly mocking him for his performance Then, he missed the date to file an appeal and tried to cover up his bungling by representing that opposing counsel agreed to use a later date for the appeal—as if! I unwittingly proceeded with spending months and tens of thousands of dollars filing an appeal only to have it thrown out for untimeliness immediately afterward. He spent nearly two additional years ineffectively trying to clean up outstanding issues from my divorce settlement; including setting up a three hour hearing where he forgot to serve opposing counsel! I had to fire him and hire a new attorney for tens of thousands more to clean up the mess he created.