The Worst Law Office in the World?
CHICAGO (CN) – A “foreclosure defense” office charged a client $41,000 for “filing fees” and charged her for filing her own legal work, telling her filing pro se would “give her an advantage” on appeal, the woman claims in court.
Lori Lappas sued Illinois Foreclosure Defense LLC and Innocent Obi, in Cook County Court. The brief, 4-page complaint contains a welter of alarming allegations.
Illinois Foreclosure Defense is “owned by two attorneys who provide legal services for clients,” the complaint states, and Obi is and was their employee.
The complaint does not state that Obi is an attorney, but Lappas says he was her “only contact” with the office.
She says she hired the defendants in January 2012 to represent her in two foreclosure cases.
“Lori Lappas paid Illinois Foreclosure defense in excess of $20,000 over the last 10 months,” the complaint states.
It adds: “That in addition to the defense of the two foreclosure lawsuits, Innocent Obi and Illinois Foreclosure Defense agreed to represent Lori Lappas in three additional lawsuits and represent her with yet a fourth matter with regard to issues with the Internal Revenue Service.
“That for each of the cases and the issue with the IRS, Ms. Lappas paid retainer fees to the Illinois Foreclosure Defense.
“That for each of these three additional lawsuits and with the representation Innocent Obi and Illinois Foreclosure Defense did no work and refuses to refund any of the retainers paid [by] Ms. Lappas.”
“That with respect to the original foreclosure cases Innocent Obi had, despite being paid as attorneys for Ms. Lappas, had Ms. Lappas file appeals as pro se defendant with Illinois Foreclosure Defense and Innocent Obi not only did the actual filing of the pro se filings but further cut and pasted Ms. Lappas’s signature without her authority.
“That with the pro se appeals, such appeals were prepared by Obi Innocent on behalf of Illinois Foreclosure Defense yet had Ms. Lappas file pro se and also had her pay retainer fees for those appeals.
“That Ms. Lappas was told that filing pro se would give her an advantage in the appellate court.
“That these appeals have not halted any prosecution of the foreclosure cases nor had any advantage to Ms. Lappas.”
To cap it off, Lappas says: “That before Ms. Lappas left town on October 23, 2012, Ms. Lappas left a blank signed check with Innocent Obi and Illinois Foreclosure Defense in order to pay any needed filing fees or her monthly $400 fee if she could not be reached.
“That upon her return Ms. Lappas found that Innocent Obi had written out the check for $41,000 to Illinois Foreclosure Defense; further noting that the check was written the same day Ms. Lappas left town on October 23, 2012.”
Lappas says she has repeatedly asked for “copies of all work completed by Illinois Foreclosure Defense,” but “was never given any copies.”
She seeks damages for fraud and breach of contract, and says her damages “include but are not limited to the loss of her homes.”
She is represented by Jeffrey Deer with Deer, Stone & Maya.
SOURCE: The Worst Law Office in the World?
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@Todd W what do you mean be mindful who is watching? Do you have a direct email?
@Todd W thank you so much I am going to look into it and I will get back to you. This has consumed my life! I never set out to be a lawyer but have been forced to learn the law unfortunately it doesn’t matter because these Judges are so corrupt. I feel for the people losing their homes that can’t pay but that wasn’t our situation we were paying and our home was illegally foreclosed.
coco, being mindful of who is watching and always making my record, I will be glad to pass on helpful information that you can use. We’ve worked with homeowners in New England (MA, NH, CT) and know who the “usual suspects” are there. will freely share information that should be helpful to you. skype todd.wetzelberger- in skype contact request- include “fraudclosure in MA” so I know who it’s coming from. If you are willing to fight you can learn the tools to win and share with others. This is going to be won on the grass roots level from the bottom up. I’m no different than you or most homeowners. If I can learn this info so can you. As a former real estate investor/developer and deep sea diver before that, whose $3M business was wiped out literally overnight by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, I’m an accidental litigator by necessity. Oddly enough, having our business wiped out by a hurricane is one of the best things that ever happened, as I probably never would have woken up to what is really going on otherwise. todd
We paid $35,000 to an attorney and we did all the work. I had made copies costing over $100 of all of our documents all in consecutive order. We had the most obvious case of FRAUD. We were never in arrears on a mortgage that was never recorded but we continued to pay until we received our copy of the Note, Security Instrument, payoffs and all closing documents that are required to satisfy the terms of a legal contract. We never even knew the house was illegally sold until 45 days later when we got a 72 hour notice to vacate the premises. We live in MA and it is a state law that the bank has to send a Notice of Default (which they didn’t because we weren’t in default). They never sent a Notice of Foreclosure Sale, nor was it ever published in the newspaper. This is all reason for DEFENSE. We had copies of all letters sent to the bank, closing law office (our closing was held a a local food court and the only ones present were my husband & I and a notary) We were not given anything that day except 2 copies each of the Right to Cancel which were never signed. We had copies of complaints, QWR’s and the invalid responses. The list goes on & on. When the unethical Judge ignored the Facts of Law the attorney wanted another $5,000. The house was bought with an INVALID CREDIT BID. Its unfortunate that it wasn’t one of the big banks involved in the AG settlement. I feel we were given a life sentence and our hands are tied. There needs to be lawyers that take cases on contingency and Judges have to start upholding the law. MA state Officials are like wolves guarding the hen house. The Division of Banks, AG, FBI, Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Reg all are guilty of dereliction of duty and passing the buck. I want Justice! I had a perfect payment history and should never have been in this situation. Our attorney was a wolf dressed in sheeps clothing!
coco, we work with homeowners in 16 states that have either been screwed by attorneys or can’t afford to be screwed by attorneys.
buy Jurisdictionary (google it) it’s the best $250 you will ever invest and the education will last you a lifetime.
this fight is far from over. we beat crooked deadbeat attorneys all the time. we are going after judge’s bonds now and suing sheriffs and their insurance companies.
Don’t quit, that’s what they want you to do.
this isn’t that hard to learn and there are homeowners just like you fighting back across the country. You are not alone, especially in MA where Ibanez and Bevilacqua decisiions were handed down and MA AG is somewhat useful
This is because the truth is, only a Natural Born U.S. CITIZEN can invoke their Constitutional Rights….No attorney can do that for YOU….
The state of Florida has a pandemic of thieving blood sucking rapist lawyers
I would like to see more of these lawyer horror stories posted in the future.
Please note there are many good selfless lawyers who are fighting
for the people and contribute to this site.
This is such a sad story. She’s already going thru enough with foreclusure on her homes and something with the IRS, the last thing she needs is get taken by whom she went to for help. I honestly don’t know how some people can live with themselves. Sad
More suckers preyed on by wanker attorneys.
In my report 37 Questions to Ask Before You Hire An Attorney, I included an excerpt from an attorney themselves “This may seem to be a silly question but here is why I suggest you ask this [asking if they are admitted to practice in the state you are located in] . . . there are so many lawyers around the country that are viewing the foreclosure crisis as a wonderful opportunity to scam and cheat people.
For goodness sakes- get Jurisdictionary. It’s the BEST $250 you will ever invest. It would have prevented the above scenario from happening even if a homeowner did hire an attorney.
Stop being fleeced from attorneys on both sides of the war. WAKE UP and stop it.