Stay away from Thompson
I hired Thompson to represent me in a divorce after my previous attorney resigned unexpectedly due to COVID. I regret it!
I found Thompson to be terribly inept. The first hearing where he represented me was about temporary spousal support. In California, the courts use a software program known is Dissomaster. For a spousal support hearing, you bring your inputs for Dissomaster just like you would bring your suitcase. Guess what...Thompson did not bring it! My wife's attorney aggressively
included numbers, and the judge awarded her $6,000/month -- this was during the Pandemic when my company was earning NOTHING!
In the parking lot, Thompson told me that he needed a payment of $10,000 -- this would total $27,000 for representing me less than 2 months. I told him that I would appreciate an invoice that detailed his time and expenses. Hand to God...he said that in asking so, he would charge me a 30% premium. Of course when I confronted him via email, he denied it.
Soon thereafter, I fired him, because he failed to understand an accounting issue that wrongly gave my wife a $250,000 benefit during a mediation session. Unlike Thompson, the mediator who also misunderstood the matter went to the extraordinary measure of refunding his fee, because he knew that his mistake sabotaged a settlement.
The Business and Professions Code (aka BPC) Section 6148 states very clearly that an attorney must 1.) provide a written contract of the engagement exceeds $1,000 and 2.) the attorney must provide a client with a detailed invoice within 10 days of the client requesting one. Thompson failed to do both.
After over a dozen requests and 10 MONTHS (and Thompson saying..."you will have it next week"), he never provided it.
So...I took him to small claims.
Guess what he showed up with at court?...you guessed it...an invoice.
The judge admonished Thompson for knowing better than to introduce new evidence on the day of the trial.
The court awarded me $8,000 plus court costs. (Note: to this day Thompson never provided a written agreement.)
During this time, Thompson delayed transferring the client file to my new attorney. After 3 months, he finally sent an incomplete file of documents that was only around 3" thick. After removing print-outs of emails between Thompson and me, the stack was less than 1".. Because Thompson didn't transfer the file, my new attorney's inefficiency in getting up to speed cost me over $15,000. I'm suing Thompson again in small claims court. Standby for the court's ruling.
One more thing...I also reviewed Thompson on another website. With mine, he had three reviews and they were all 1-star ratings. I found it an odd that soon after I reviewed him, two 4-star results popped up...what a miracle!
Please...do not hire Thompson. He is not a smart or ethical person.
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