Rate and Review James M. Ruel

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- Engaging Attorney James Ruel proved financially and legally ruinous - Exercise extreme caution before hiring - - Bob B - 1/12/2024 - flag as inappropriate - comment
Evaluation of Attorney James Ruel - A Dismal Experience In summary, engaging Attorney James Ruel proved financially ruinous and legally damaging. See details below. **Mediation Proceedings and Abandonment 4/21/15 Engaged Atty James Ruel to review mediated Lump-Sum (LS) settlement. Ruel was strongly against LS & favored paying alimony for 11 years,132 alimony payments I directed Ruel to pursue LS agreement only 9/28/15 Mediated LS settlement approved by all parties Mediated LS (near final) total cost = $15K Ruel convinced parties to leave mediation by stating that the LS agreement would never be Judge approved due to my age and amount of savings. My appeals lawyer contradicted Ruel’s statement as did the Judge’s approval of a LS agreement reached during the appeal. **Ruel Competency Issues Ruel failed abide by his fiduciary and competent representation duties driving costs from 15K to $350K Inaccurate financial models were run by Ruel team members lacking any accounting or financial planning SME or industry certifications necessary to identify model output errors or to competently analyze financial offers from spouse. My post-divorce financial health was predicated on having accurate financial models Model’s inaccuracy forced an emergency 401K withdrawal of $125K and an associated tax penalty of $1000 per month for 36 months. Ruel’s discovery process failed to ask spouse for information about any uncollected alimony or child support awards from her 1st marriage. My appeals lawyer identified $200K of assets due to spouse from 1st husband that she chose not to collect or to ask the court’s assistance to do so. **Ruel Advocacy Shortcoming Opposing Counsel OC subjected me to constant character assassinations and baseless accusations during negotiating calls and in front of the special masters. Pleas to Ruel to address OC’s behavior were met with condescension (e.g. quote from Ruel’s response to intervention request, "I can address OC’s behavior or get this agreement finalized, which do you want?” My response was I want both to be addressed and Ruel chose not to call out OC’s behavior. Refused to support audit request to verify compliance of OC’s billing against client funded retainer. Violated fiduciary duty by joining with OC to belittle me regarding above Allowed OC to cover for constant missed deadlines with last minute delay tactics including prior approval withdrawals & cancellations of meetings and court appearances. Above caused > time/expense for travel, wasted PTO &months of > time to finalize divorce. Ruel failed to inform me that If it is clear your spouse is wasting your time and money, you can petition to have them pay for a portion or all of your divorce attorney fees and that the fees must be consistent with normal industry parameters Ruel responded to post divorce requests for assistance with reopening the settlement by saying there were no viable options and that I should live with it.