Dean P. Valente

Quit my case...and NO retainer refund! Mr. Valente was paid a retainer fee but then quit my case because a previous attorney I had used was his friend. He stated that this previous attorney was his friend and he didn't want to step on the toes of another attorney. He also kept the entire retainer of $1,500 while only doing a small amount of work. The retainer was paid with an agreed objective of getting a judgement against a third party whom I had made a loan to. Once the retainer was paid to Mr. Valente, his only action was to send the third party a "Demand Letter" which resulted in no payments to me. Then, Mr. Valente quit the representation of my case stating that my prior attorney was his friend and that he was put in a difficult situation. Subsequent to that, Mr. Valente contacted my previous attorney without my consent and discussed my case with him. Finally, once he determined a friend was my prior counsel he no longer communicated with me by phone. I called and left a voice mail message after about 10 days without hearing from him. He never returned my call. These actions violate more than one of the Attorney ethics codes including: 1) Improper termination of attorney-client relationship, including abandonment 2) Revealing confidential discussions 3) Failing to communicate with client. Based on my experience with Mr. Valente, I can say without hesitation that he has not been professional. Upon asking for only a partial refund, he then created a document stating that he would get a percentage of any monies collected over a certain time frame in return for a partial refund. I'm making this review because nobody should be subjected to such experiences like this. An attorney has obligation to clients based on professional ethics irrespective of personal friend relationships....simply appalling!