1 Star
1 Star – Serious Mishandling of Eviction Case & Failure to Appear
We hired this Callahan Firm, Rachael Kennebeck (SBN: 275627) for legal representation in an eviction matter based on a recommendation from a real estate agent. Unfortunately, our experience was extremely poor and resulted in direct harm to our case.
We followed the firm’s explicit emailed instructions to arrive early at the Menifee courthouse and wait for a call from our attorney. Despite doing so, our attorney never appeared. We received no communication from the firm and had to call three separate times in a panic to find out what was happening. Because our attorney failed to show up, we were effectively abandoned and handed off to her contracted counsel at the courthouse.
The contracted counsel attorney informed us that our case had been mishandled from the beginning. We were advised that the tenant should have been served with a 60-day notice rather than a 30-day notice, and that the required 3-day notice was never served at all.
We were told these errors meant we would have certainly lost the case had it gone forward. As a result, we were forced to dismiss the case entirely, losing time, money $ 5674.50 in total, and our legal standing.
To make matters worse, evidence referenced by the free attorney representing the tenant (a video introduced by the tenant the day of the trial) was mentioned by our attorney, after we sent a complaint to her. Instead of taking accountability for the errors in the paperwork and apologizing for the lack of communication about not intending to show up at court. The attorney effectively accused us of lying to her and withholding information. This is not true. We knew nothing about any video. We have asked numerous times to see this deceiving video, but it still has not been provided.
Given the attorney’s failure to appear, lack of communication, and fundamental legal errors, the services provided had no value and caused significant stress and harm. We sent a demand of a review of the invoice and asked for some adjustments to the total. But this request was completely ignored.
I strongly advise family and friends to proceed with extreme caution before trusting this firm with a legal matter. I would also advise others to review the Bar Association’s website. I wish we would have reviewed the site prior to contacting the attorney’s office.