Property Owners - Avoid Law Offices of Yousef Monadjemi Poor service, Mediocre Advice, Bad Follow-Up Encino California

Hired Yousef to handle an eviction proceeding for a flat fee; was lulled into a false sense of security about ability from the 5-star avvo.com reviews his offices received on avvo.com [here]. 

http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/91436-ca-yousef-monadjemi-313922.html

The key to the avvo reviews is to dig below the "stars" and read the reviews themselves..the 5 star reviews are peppered with "real" clients where the stars were 1-stars. Yelp is a better guide:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/law-offices-of-yousef-monadjemi-encino

I believe the avvo reviews were padded, as there was little in the way of good service, advice, or follow-up during the process of the case.  At the end of the ordeal, i was happy to be getting out financiallly a few thousand dollars poorer, but at least finished and free to try again with a more responsive attorney.  The highlights:

-neglected to tell me when forms were due in a timely manner, in one instance, needing signed documents from me for a court date hours from the first phone notification

-did not forward me summary judgement documents that defendent had filed in court so that above depostiion could be responsive to their specific points (received copy after case was dismissed).

-seemed to be unable to respond to emailed questions with much depth

-could not seem to find the time to advise on how to prevail vs just how to settle as quickly as possible

-on multiple occasions, couldn't find prior-sent emails, and needed to re-send

I haven't had the other reviewers' on this site's horror stories about money stolen (although I don't refute them, I just didn't experience it), but do recommend that anyone considering hiring him do two things:

-do NOT pay him a large (multiple thousands of dollars) retainer up front; work out a pay-as-you-go plan where you pay up front before he works, but not a big stack of cash that is out of your control why who knows what is being charged against it.

-attend every single hearing personally, no exceptions, even if he states it's unnecessary

-be prepared to chase him down when you need answers, even though you've paid for his advice already

Actually, my advice is to find another attorney:  I found a really good one through an RE investor website that I'm happy with and I wish I had taken the time to research further vs acting on one website's stellar customer reviews.  Lesson learned; don't get burned...you can do better!