I had a very bad experience with attorney Christopher C. Jones

Chrisopher C. Jones
Attorney at Law

Law Office of Eaton, Jones & Michelon
Chrisopher C. Jones
Cristi L. Michelon
1032 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 963-2014

Re: Lawyer Chrisopher C. Jones
Re: Attorney Chrisopher C. Jones

Know Your Rights As A Client

A written fee agreement is required by law (Bus. & Prof. Code § 6147-6148)
---------------------------------
Bus. & Prof. Code § 6148

§ 6148.

(a) An attorney who contracts to represent a client on a contingency fee basis shall, at the time the contract is entered into, provide a duplicate copy of the contract, signed by both the attorney and the client, or the client's guardian or representative, to the plaintiff, or to the client's guardian or representative. The contract shall be in writing and shall include, but is not limited to, all of the following:

(1) A statement of the contingency fee rate that the client and attorney have agreed upon.

(b) Failure to comply with any provision of this section renders the agreement voidable at the option of the plaintiff, and the attorney shall thereupon be entitled to collect a reasonable fee.

See California Code Sections Bearing on the Legal Profession at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/ethics/ca/code/CA_STAT.HTM

My Advice:

Never, Ever, agree to a fixed flat rate for services.
Always insist an attorney charge by the hour.
If an attorney offers to do some work for a fixed flat rate, immediately walk away and find another attorney. This is not an honest attorney you want to deal with.
Never give any money to an attorney up front. If they insist you partly pay them up front, walk away and find another attorney. This is not an honest attorney you want to deal with.
Insist the attorney write legal documents that are easy to understand. Some unscrupulous attorneys write legal documents in "spaghetti language" — convoluted incomprehensible lawyer speak. Legal documents should be clear and easy to understand. If they are incomprehensible, they are not good legal documents. The whole point of a legal document is to clearly state the agreement being entered into. A legal document does not need to be written in "spaghetti language" that only other lawyers can understand. Incomprehensible legal documents are simply unacceptable.
Tell the attorney if the legal document they produce is incomprehensible, you will not accept it and will not pay them a dime.
This is why you never pay them anything up front.

I'm also a bit wary of:

Filippini Financial Group, Inc.
1096 Coast Village Road
Montecito, CA 93108

as they were the ones who initially made the appointment for us with their buddy Christopher C. Jones.

Filippini used every emotional trick to scare us that everything was a disaster, that they knew what they were doing, with their fancy office and fancy titles, that they liked us, that they were doing us a favor, etc. That may work on other people, but it doesn't work on us NT type Engineers. It's in our nature to stay focused on the facts and not be moved by emotional pleas. In fact, emotional pleas and a fancy show make us suspicious.

To their credit, when I broke it off with Filippini after our 2nd meeting, I offered to pay them for their time, but they declined to accept any payment. So I'm left with the oxymoron of Filippini being the honest scam artist.

-Gary W. Deley
-David W. Deley
2007

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