JM Leving Law LTD 14 YR OLD SON ATTEMPTED SUICIDE WHILE WAITING FOR LEVING LAW TO FILE FOR AN IN CAMERA INTERVIEW Chicago, Illinois

JM Leving Law group in Illinois is the epitome of money chasing, low lawyers. They look to extend a case as long as they can telling you that it just happens that way sometimes but if they wanted to, they could wrap things up with the case quite quickly. My main reason in making this comment is not about money but in who really suffers when custody battles are unnecessarily extended longer than they should be. They seem to have NO concern for the child involved. Period.

As a family member to a good father working to see his son, it was very sad to see that it took well over a year for anything to be filed and resolved in what JM Leving described as an in and out kind of case. It is a shame that they don't work towards children's rights because that is who is really losing when you look at the big picture. He did finally get to begin a relationship with his son after he was 16 months old, but why? Why was it OK for this child to be deprived his father for no good reason.  

After everything was finally filed and resolved, my family member was out over 10K in legal fees over something that should have taken at most, 3 visits in court to resolve. Proceed with caution when considering hiring JM Leving group in Illinois.  

I hired JM Leving's firm to represent me in what Mr D'Agostino referred to as an uncomplicated case. After paying for an initial consultation I was charged for the explaining done to another attorney who was to actually handle my case.

This individual on multiple occasions told me that he was very busy (implicitly giving my case a lower priority to his other cases). Interesting enough my case was in a very rural area of Illinois. This fact seems uninteresting except that I never had any trouble finding street side parking the 12 or so times I made trips to Illinois before and after I had hired Mr Leving's firm. Yet, I was billed for parking and other similar absurd itemization in the representation of my case.

Mind you I was told that the attorney who would represent my case would also be conducting a teamwork operation. Teamwork included billing for me having to call other attorney's and paralegals to explain that my child's name was not female, ethnic (as I am a European American), nor the name whatsoever used on the motions sent to me for signing and submission to the courts.

Ironically, I was told not to be concerned with those details, but when I fired the attorney with whom I may have been theoretically better off to remain (despite their doing nothing) I was billed for the multiple submissions of the request for relief as their office found errors when they received the documents. I was notified by their office that they had found errors in the documents submitted by JM Leving for their relief which delayed my case, increased my bill, and got nothing in my case handled.

By the time I hired JM Leving I had spent almost 9 months filing on my own, and had hired an attorney for approximately a month or two. I was sick of returning after my ex's attorney repeatedly requested "status checks" knowing full well that he was delaying a trial/hearing, and attempting to allow the opposing counsel to bleed my shallow pockets. I had established paternity on my own and managed to discover the address of the individual trying to conceal my child from me. All the while it turns out that my child's mother was under investigation by Child Protective Services (CPS), and I still do not even know why to this day (1.5 years later). By the way she has since been investigated once more for alleged drug abuse/use and they let her go get her own drug test and submit it to them. Currently I have found a broken rib from four months ago while my child is visiting me and will have to call CPS myself tomorrow morning.

My attorney repeatedly showed up in court without a pressed suit and even had the audacity to appear with a shirt that looked like he purchased it in high school and had neither washed nor concerned himself with the frayed collar since then. I literally had an attorney that was charging me $350 an hour for court, and I (the broke college student that drove 750 miles to be in court) appeared more professional than he. When I brought this concern to the billing individual I heard from regularly (unlike my attorney) I was insulted as if I actually wanted a fashion guru as opposed to an attorney that would competently represent my case. I only wish that the previous complaint about the firm had been available to influence my decision to hire JM Leving.

The most despicable factor in the whole thing is that I am afraid posting this complaint could result in my bill being reestablished somehow. JM Leving decided not to pursue my additional bill after I sent Mr Modesto a letter outlining these complaints and more. Specifically, I highlighted the complaint of my judgment proof circumstance due to the extraordinarily high percentage of my income I was forced (after over a year and a half of litigating and status checks) to "willingly" sign to give as support to a woman who was in no way financially burdened to care for our child she wanted to remain the custodian of.

All the while I now provide all the cloths for my child and his mother continues to make over $3,000 a month and I am questioned as to the receipt of her support. Apparently support a woman who can't make ends meet with my support of over $300 a month and her 53K annual income.

I am now wondering as I must soon find a way to successfully file for the custody of my child who is apparently held hostage by an immoral, immature, and detrimentally neglectful mother that only considers her feelings as opposed to the best interests of our child.

After being represented by JM Leving, and his wonderful attorneys, I decided to become a lawyer myself. I am now planning to attend law school in the fall of 2013 and only hope to truly work as an advocate for the right's a child aught to have. Not simply as a father's right advocate (ha what a joke), but as an advocate for the right of a child to have their father. Not just as an advocate to the luck of someone's mother screwing up, and the father lucking out with custody. I plan to work for clients that otherwise could not afford representation, and I will make make a modest, fair living doing so.

JM Leving's firm has given me a meaningful mission to pursue a career that could save the life (through developmental concerns as well as outright safety) of children who have loving fathers that may have chosen the wrong women for whatever reason at some point in their life.

I find the rebuttal to the three year case insulting and perverse. The only reason that JM Leving and his associates finished my case up and got me a joint custody order was because my large unemployment check was about to end and I was a broke college student. They saw the writing on the wall and fortunately for me I now have at least a joint custody order and get to be a substantial influence in my son's life.

If that rebuttal was posted by a client of JM Leving's then they aught to understand that just because their case did not go as the original reporter's nor mine that they could and likely are the exception and not the rule to the practices of JM Leving. I noticed a lot of publicity and highlight to their high profile cases. Mr Leving himself always smiled big for the cameras and gave a lot of special care to such cases and worked them expeditiously and diligently. I also noticed that my very large bills almost always included a glossy photograph and story of one of his highly publicized cases. However, these represent those cases that lured me into hiring this large firm.

I have learned my lesson...falling pray to the highly publicized (polished deuces times ten) is not always going to pan out to be "you get what you pay for." Since this fiasco I have hired two attorneys in totally different types of cases and looked for someone that wanted to work swiftly and charged a fair rate. It worked out swimmingly. I got what I needed done fast, and without a large attorney bill.

Thanks for the input there, but it seems like good reasons and a true rebuttal might have been a more effective response.

Our firm has never represented a parent in a case causing a 14-year-old boy to attempt suicide. This report is totally false. I suspect this was posted anonymously by a non-client, hostile to firm's mission of protecting fathers' rights and also to harass Mr. Leving. I respect Mr. Leving and see the good work he does with his firm and their passion for protecting fathers and their children. Please remove!