Mark Pleplowski, Esq Caused me to loose my children North Las Vegas, Nevada

My divorce cost me $75,000 in attorney's fees and I still lost my kids too.  I know plenty who have paid much more than this.  It wasn't the attorney who ripped me or you off. It was the judge, who happened to be the same one as yours.  Family law is a great money maker for the Court.  The more times you have to keep going back, the better for them.  It isn't really about what is best for the kids, or for the ease of already hurt feelings.  What "should" happen gets tossed out the window for whatever way the lawyers want to spin the story to keep clients there longer. I was going for joint custody and a 50/50 split of financials, nothing wild or crazy. 

I had a stable home, a good paying, moral job I had worked at for several years, plenty of family support, no criminal or civil record, no psychological or medical issues, etc, and all with plenty of evidence to prove it.  All of this didn't matter.  I lost all assets, my home, vehicles, my kids' college funds, and anything that was worth money. I had to file bankruptcy.  I didn't give up.  A couple years later, I got my kids back, my ex went to prison, and I built my life back up. Life goes on, if your work for it.  Your kids are watching.

You are claiming this attorney (who doesn't have a single black mark on his professional record and has helped countless families and individuals for free or well below industry standard pay) who was doing you a favor by only charging you $500 (which is the industry standard of approximately 2 hours of work) to file a 50 page document and appear in court, no less than twice on your behalf, ripped you off. 

Here is some information to help those who don't understand the family court process... If you eventually had a hearing, papers didn't file themselves.  The Court charges a filing fee to file documents, hence the reason he charged you.  Additionally, one doesn't just file for an evidentiary hearing.  You have to go through no less than 2 court appearances prior to that, a calendar call, and most likely an attempt at mediation before that happens.  Most attorneys generally charge about $50 per e-mail or telephone call answered. 

This attorney that you fired, easily worked at least 20-30 hours or more on your case for free to get you to that point before you let him go for something completely unrelated to your case.  The incident you refer to of him being arrested led to no conviction and all charges dropped by the time your case was heard.  So, it would seem that he is at least a decent enough attorney to take care of his own legal problems.  He continues to practice law, volunteer as a pro tem justice of the peace, and is a award winning professor, among many other hats he wears volunteering in his community.

The formula you are talking about refers to child support calculation.  You owed child support "arrears" which are calculated in addition to the standard formula so that you can eventually "catch up."  This also, is not the attorney's fault, but an actual Nevada law.  As for having to pay that from your "unemployment check," well, kids don't raise themselves.  They don't just stop eating, or needing a roof over their heads, or needing medical attention because you can't or won't work.  Purposefully not working so you don't have to pay child support hurts nobody but your kids.  They deserve to be raised by a responsible parent in a stable home. 

Ok, I understand not wanting to be represented by an attorney who was busted in a prostitution sting.

But nonetheless, you voluntarily fired your attorney two months prior to an important hearing, and apparently failed to secure alternate counsel.

So what did you expect to happen at the hearing? You didn't have anyone there to represent you. Of course you lost.

Your complaint title states that this attorney caused you to lose your children. It takes some pretty circuitous logic to arrive at this conclusion. Basically, what you're saying is that this attorney's alleged penchant for ladies of the evening cost you the custody of your children.

The reality is that your personal aversion to the attorney's activities, coupled with your failure to assure that you were represented, cost you the custody of your children.

I guess I just don't see how you can blame someone for the outcome of a proceeding where you prevented him from even participating.