Fraley & Fraley, PC Inc.

Revdex.com of Northeast California Complaint ID# 10461691Dear [redacted]                I am [redacted], founder and owner of Fraley & Fraley, Sacramento Bankruptcy...

Attorneys.                This matter came to my attention before your contact with my office. [redacted], my marketing specialist came to me right after receiving a phone call from an individual with a female voice that refused to identify herself and was yelling at him. It now appears that Ms. [redacted] ([redacted]) is the same individual that he tried to have a conversation with. She first talked to my receptionist [redacted].  [redacted] was unable to provide her any information about the law suit letter and why she received it. Since she would not identify herself, [redacted] turned the call over to [redacted]. Again she would not give her name and was, as he put it “argumentative and brash.” Without a name, he could not look up and give her any specific information about her letter. He tried to let her know that all the information about the lawsuit on the letter and that the information was obtained from public records.                The letter is an advertisement. Per California State Bar rules, the words “Legal Newsletter” is printed in 10 point print size on both the letter and the envelope. The information is in 10 point “Angsana New” type face on the front of the envelope and 10 point “Gabriola” type face at the top center of the letter right below the letterhead.                Now that I finally have a name I have been able to pull up the letter and the information that the letter was based on. A reprinted copy of the envelope and the letter is included for you to review. ByState Bar Rules, we are required to keep a sample of our advertising mailers. We go beyond that in the fact that we can reprint every letter we send out. We are in full compliance with the State Bar advertising rules.There is a lawsuit. The case is from San Joaquin County which is why she could not find the lawsuit information. She was looking in the wrong county. Having her name would have allowed Mr. [redacted] to provide her the detailed information we are giving you. The letter she has includes all the information (other than the fact that it was in San Joaquin County) in it. The case number is also accurate. Both of these are evidenced in the documentation I am providing you now with this response. Mr. [redacted] would have been happy to provide her the same information if she had simply provided her name. Instead he was berated and hung up on.I sent the letter to her because, according to the information we got from a website "BeenVerified.com" that does searches for people, she goes by both the name listed on the case, “[redacted]” and the name she is using today, “[redacted].” It appears that she may also go by another alias “[redacted] Wells.” Another factor in choosing to send this individual a letter is that [redacted] recently lived in Stockton, which is in San Joaquin County, the same county that the law suit was filed in. Therefore it is likely though not 100% certain that she is the defendant in this law suit. A copy of the “BeenVerified Report” is being provided to you with this response.                In looking at the San Joaquin County Courts website it appears that the defendant has not been served as of the day she complained to you and my office, and very well could be [redacted]. The Court Records show that the lawsuit appears to be based on some sort of auto accident. I have provided you with a copy of the San Joaquin County Court records.If she has not yet been served with the lawsuit it would be understandable that she may not be aware of the case. There have been occasions where people thought they had not been sued only tofind out later that, in fact, they had been sued.Our letter is meant to help people to know that they have options if they are sued. We do NOT and will never send out random letters about “fake” law suits to scare people. It would be unethical,useless and economically infeasible to do so and I would never do that.We never threaten people nor, as you can see, provide false information to them. They do not have to fear us, but they may be wise to prepare themselves to deal with the lawsuit by thecreditor. We just give them the facts we have based on the Court documents.We do our best to make sure the person listed on the law suit and the person we mail the letter to is the same person. We recognize that occasionally one of our letters may be accidentally mailed to someone with the same name who has not been sued.Because of that possibility we have a statement that reads as follows: “If we contacted you in error, and in fact it is another person with the same name that was sued, please accept our apologies and ignore this letter.” This is in bold located on the front of the letter as the first sentence in the first paragraph that would be read by the recipient.Whether or not the law suit is against Ms. [redacted] we cannot be 100% sure of but there is a fairly high probability is likely that it is. We have also covered the possibility of it not being the person sued in the letter as stated above.If Ms. [redacted] had a problem with our letter, she could simply have done what the letter says, and tossed the letter instead of getting upset at us.What we state in the letter is completely accurate and true. We are as described and help people who have financial problems. We stand by the accuracy of the information in letter.I am not going to stop sending letters to other people who have been sued. We have many clients who come to us based on the letters and very much appreciate receiving our letter so they candeal with the problem before or soon after they are served.I am truly sorry that Ms. [redacted] is upset at receiving our letter.  I wish her well. It is never our intention to upset people, just to help them. I would note that this person is not, nor has never been a client/customer of our law firm. Based on her not being a client and the clear misstatements and inaccuracies in her allegations,I would request that this complaint not be placed on our Revdex.com records.Sincerely, [redacted]

please see detailed response on our letterhead to the complaint. It includes attachments from BeenVerified.com people search and from the Placer County Recorder printout.Basic contents of the letter are as follows:Dear...

[redacted]                I have reviewed the complaint by Ms. [redacted].  I sent the letter to her because it appears that she has goes by both “[redacted]” and “[redacted].” Please see the “BeenVerified.com” printout for details. The information we used was from an online printout from the Placer County Recorder. That Judgment lien was against “[redacted].” I have attached a copy of the printout. Please note that the Placer County Recorder’s Office Document Number (inadvertently listed as Case number) is 2015-0010000-00 for the recorded Abstract of Judgment. It is the same number as on the letterto her. The Abstract of Judgment is against “[redacted].” Ms. [redacted] lives in Placer County where the Abstract of Judgment was recorded. Therefore we thought that she was the same individual that was on the Abstract of Judgment recorded with the in Recorder’s Office.  The name and address used was obtained from the people search program “BeenVerified.com.” A copy of the “BeenVerified.com Report” is attached to this response. It appears that Ms. [redacted] has used the name “[redacted]” and “[redacted] A. [redacted]” in the past. The only difference in the name she used was that she used the middle name “[redacted]” with the “e” at the end. The actual debtor used “[redacted]” without the “e” in her middle name. The fact that this Ms. [redacted] lives in Placer County and has an exact first and last name and a middle name that is often spelled both ways and is strikingly similar would lead us to believe thatshe was that person. What are the odds that she was a different person? It wase xtremely unlikely there would be two different [redacted] A. [redacted] but it happened here. As a result of the complaint I sent an attorney to the Placer County Recorder’s Office in Auburn on Monday to try to determine whether she was the actual debtor. We finally concluded that the “[redacted]” on the Placer County Abstract of Judgment most likely is not this “[redacted].”                 The Abstract of Judgment letter is meant to help people know that they have options when a judgment lien is recorded against them. We do NOT and will never send out random letters about “fake” law suits to scare people. It would be pointless and a waste of money to do so. We do our best to make sure the person listed on the Abstract of Judgment and the person we mail the letter to is the same person. However, recognize that occasionally one of our letters may be accidentally mailed to someone who has the same or similar name to the debtor listed on the abstract. We have now added a statement to our Abstract of Judgment letters that reads as follows: “If we contacted you in error, and in fact it is another person with the same or similar name that this Abstract of Judgment was recorded against, please accept our apologies and ignore this letter.”This is in bold red letters. It is now located of located on the front of the letter as the first sentence in the first paragraph that would be read by the recipient. What we state in the letter is completely accurate and true as to [redacted] [redacted] (without the “e”.) We have many clients who come to us based on our Abstract letters and very much appreciate receiving our letter. We send out several thousand letters each month and handle many clients. I am sorry if my letter was upsetting to this Ms. [redacted] that received it. That was not my intent.Hopefully, the information I am providing should clear up this misunderstanding. I am also going to send a copy of this letter along with a $25 gift card to Ms. [redacted]. [redacted]To Ms. [redacted], Ms. [redacted], please accept my sincere apology for the discomfort we have caused you even though it was unintended and purely accidental.  Enclosed please find a $25 gift card from me. If you have any questions or concerns please call my office at ###-###-####. I hope the above information answers any questions you have about how and why we sent the letter to you. I hope that you have a wonderful day & a happy Easter.God Bless,[redacted], Esq.

I am rejecting this response because:The information provided by Mr. [redacted] is incorrect. I did give my name ([redacted]) and told the gentleman I spoke with on the phone that I had a case number as well. He refused to give me any information regarding the case unless I made some sort of appointment with their office and told me I could find all the information I needed in the letter. He refused to tell me which court to contact regarding this case as well. I understand that this is some sort of advertisement for this particular law office but it is misleading. It states my name and an actual case number. I just wanted more information from the office that somehow had my name and this case number. There is no reference in the letter to previous legal names I have used or any connection to San Joaquin County where I previously resided. Had the gentleman I spoke with given me the information they provided to Revdex.com, I would not have needed to file a complaint.

Review: Well first off, the fees to file the bankruptcy seemed outrageous especially considering we are obviously broke or we wouldn't need to file a bk in the first place. They told us we could take as long as long as we needed to make the payments since they felt we were getting enough harassment from the creditors they didn't need to. In the beginning this place seemed awesome and legit aside from the fees, which actually was around $1700 total in order for them to file our bk and get our credit wiped out. Later we made a payment of 700 dollars because we got an unprofessional notice in the mail right before christmas that in two weeks if we didn't pay everything we owed we would have to redo everything all over again from scratch and the fees could potentially go up. This whole time they have not been taking our creditor calls because according to them they do not take any creditor calls until after everything has been settled, even though when we had our first appointment they said from that point on they would begin taking our calls and then all of a sudden it changed to them not taking anything until after we paid the almost 2 grand to file. With the 800 dollars that we had paid, absolutely nothing was done at all. Not a single creditor call would be taken and they would not use any of that money to file our bankruptcy even though the fees to file the bankruptcy is only $335. Why do we have to scrape that much money wasting time to file when if they applied the filing fees first everything would've been settled and paid without the stress of dealing with the other creditors. We again received another letter hassling us to finish paying them their attorney fees and get filed and decided to back out since it didn't seem right. I had a seizure and no longer felt it was worth it. After calling them to tell them we would back out and wanted a refund they told us we could not get refunded and they only refund the $335 in filing fees with no explanation of where that $800 dollars went. What garbage.Desired Settlement: We would like a refund of the wasted $800 we spent with this unprofessional law firm. We spent a total of 1.5 hours with the attorney which was two visits with him. They literally did nothing at all for us whatsoever which was what I was afraid of to begin with. They wanted to charge us $1365 to do absolutely nothing. Not even take our creditors calls or anything. We could've filed our own bk and would've had it finished months and months ago for less than $400. It's not rocket science.

Business

Response:

Unless Ms. [redacted] and her husband agree in writing to waive the "attorney-client privilege" I cannot disclose their information. It is very hard to defend against a client with my hands tied behind my back.If she feels that we have not treated her fairly, I will be happy to talk to her. If they will give me written permission, I could lay everything out in detail and separate fact from fiction for those that are reading this.While I cannot talk about her situation, I can discuss in general how the process works in my office.First, all my clients are broke. That is not relevant. If they hire us, they pay the fees. I cannot work for free though I surely would love it if I could.EVERY prospective client gets a "pink sheet" detailing their fees and costs at the first consultation. No surprises. No pressure is ever used though we do give a $100 discount if we are retained on the first consultation.The pink sheet every potential client receives sets out that we take creditor calls in the 2 months before the scheduled filing date for the bankruptcy. In fact, we take some calls even before that if the case will be filed within 4 months. The contract every client signs lays out a payment schedule, when we need information and sets a “target filing date” for fees and costs to be paid in full so their bankruptcy can be filed.By the way, we are the ONLY law office that GIVES EVERY CLIENT a 14 week credit rebuilding educational program. The company that provides this service charges $1,000 if the client went to them directly.We work with many clients that have problems. However, every client must provide timely, up to date information. Circumstances change. The law and how the courts interpret the law changes.Under new laws, as of December 1, 2015 ALL the bankruptcy forms changed. This means ALL the questions have changed. For clients that have not been filed before December 1, 2015, all the work on every case had to be redone from scratch. I cannot help that there is a change in the law.We encouraged every one of our clients that was scheduled to be filed prior to December 1, 2015, to get with us, provide the necessary information, and pay any outstanding fees so their case could be filed before the law changed. If there is outdated information, it has to be updated with our case analyst. Then it has to be reviewed by me.In all bankruptcy cases, any bankruptcy debtor has to pass the "means test." That looks at the exact, to the penny, income and pay statements for the 6 calendar months prior to the month the case is filed. The same is true of the “Statement of Affairs” and the “schedules listing assets, debts, income and expenses.” In addition there are many other documents to be filed.Every time a client waits another month, changes the information that has to be given to the court for the new 6 month window. That requires more work by my staff and myself. That comes out of the small amount of profit in small fee cases. I actually lose money if I have a client that does not cooperate.When any client has not completed the case within 4 months after the agreed "target filing date" and the delay is due to lack of payment or lack of cooperation to complete the case, we send out a letter that we are going to close their file if they do not work with us. I am sorry, but I have to either get a client filed or close the case. I am not the client’s “forever” slave.Additionally, if a client is scheduled to come in to review their case, then reschedules or cancels at the last minute, it means that we cannot, at the last minute, just insert someone else. That time is lost for us to schedule a new client. You can never get time back.For the record, sometimes bankruptcy is "rocket science." I did not spend 7 years of my life in school just to fill out papers. Nor have I spent 37 years in practice spending several thousand dollars each year to keep on top of all the changes in the law. I am one of only 154 attorneys certified by the State Bar of California as a bankruptcy law specialist. That is like comparing the brain surgeon with the guy that mops up the operating room. Very different people and very different skill sets. If it isn’t “rocket science” try doing your own brain surgery.My job is to make sure that my client gets the best legal services in Northern California. That means protecting the client’s assets, doing the means test analysis as needed and much more.I am proud of the quality of our services. The Judges and the Trustees know the quality of the work we do. After all, every 5 years the State Bar asks them before renewing my Bankruptcy Specialist Certification. I think that says it all.

Review: A letter I recently received by Fraley & Fraley. The letter states that I have an Abstract of Judgment from a collection agency against me. I called the attorneys office to find out more information. I talked with a secretary and she said that they had gotten the information from the county recorders office of Placer County. I had already checked the county recorders office and there was no judgment against me and that I thought it bad business practice for them to be sending out letters like this. She then transferred me to a gentleman who told me the same thing. I informed him that I would be contacting the Revdex.com and to notify his bosses.This letter upset me very much. They say on their letter that they have an Avvo rating of 10 and an A+ from the Revdex.com. This letter is nothing more than ambulance chasing.Desired Settlement: They need to stop sending out these types of letters.

Business

Response:

please see detailed response on our letterhead to the complaint. It includes attachments from BeenVerified.com people search and from the Placer County Recorder printout.Basic contents of the letter are as follows:Dear [redacted] I have reviewed the complaint by Ms. [redacted]. I sent the letter to her because it appears that she has goes by both “[redacted]” and “[redacted].” Please see the “BeenVerified.com” printout for details. The information we used was from an online printout from the Placer County Recorder. That Judgment lien was against “[redacted].” I have attached a copy of the printout. Please note that the Placer County Recorder’s Office Document Number (inadvertently listed as Case number) is 2015-0010000-00 for the recorded Abstract of Judgment. It is the same number as on the letterto her. The Abstract of Judgment is against “[redacted].” Ms. [redacted] lives in Placer County where the Abstract of Judgment was recorded. Therefore we thought that she was the same individual that was on the Abstract of Judgment recorded with the in Recorder’s Office. The name and address used was obtained from the people search program “BeenVerified.com.” A copy of the “BeenVerified.com Report” is attached to this response. It appears that Ms. [redacted] has used the name “[redacted]” and “[redacted] A. [redacted]” in the past. The only difference in the name she used was that she used the middle name “[redacted]” with the “e” at the end. The actual debtor used “[redacted]” without the “e” in her middle name. The fact that this Ms. [redacted] lives in Placer County and has an exact first and last name and a middle name that is often spelled both ways and is strikingly similar would lead us to believe thatshe was that person. What are the odds that she was a different person? It wase xtremely unlikely there would be two different [redacted] A. [redacted] but it happened here. As a result of the complaint I sent an attorney to the Placer County Recorder’s Office in Auburn on Monday to try to determine whether she was the actual debtor. We finally concluded that the “[redacted]” on the Placer County Abstract of Judgment most likely is not this “[redacted].” The Abstract of Judgment letter is meant to help people know that they have options when a judgment lien is recorded against them. We do NOT and will never send out random letters about “fake” law suits to scare people. It would be pointless and a waste of money to do so. We do our best to make sure the person listed on the Abstract of Judgment and the person we mail the letter to is the same person. However, recognize that occasionally one of our letters may be accidentally mailed to someone who has the same or similar name to the debtor listed on the abstract. We have now added a statement to our Abstract of Judgment letters that reads as follows: “If we contacted you in error, and in fact it is another person with the same or similar name that this Abstract of Judgment was recorded against, please accept our apologies and ignore this letter.”This is in bold red letters. It is now located of located on the front of the letter as the first sentence in the first paragraph that would be read by the recipient. What we state in the letter is completely accurate and true as to [redacted] (without the “e”.) We have many clients who come to us based on our Abstract letters and very much appreciate receiving our letter. We send out several thousand letters each month and handle many clients. I am sorry if my letter was upsetting to this Ms. [redacted] that received it. That was not my intent.Hopefully, the information I am providing should clear up this misunderstanding. I am also going to send a copy of this letter along with a $25 gift card to Ms. [redacted]To Ms. [redacted], Ms. [redacted], please accept my sincere apology for the discomfort we have caused you even though it was unintended and purely accidental. Enclosed please find a $25 gift card from me. If you have any questions or concerns please call my office at ###-###-####. I hope the above information answers any questions you have about how and why we sent the letter to you. I hope that you have a wonderful day & a happy Easter.God Bless,[redacted], Esq.

Review: I received a letter from Fraley & Fraley law firm stating that I have been sued by another person. This is the first I have seen or heard regarding a law suit. There is a case number on the letter as well. I called the office to inquire further and was told they can tell me nothing about the case unless I make an appointment with the office for a "free attorney consultation". They refused to tell me any details about the "case" unless I agreed to go into their office. They even refused to tell me which court this case had been filed with. The letter states several threatening reasons why I should contact their office.Desired Settlement: The letter I received looks much like an advertisement. I searched the case number from the letter at both the Sacramento County Court and Placer County Court and could find nothing that matched. I want this law office to stop sending threatening letters like this. The fact that they would give me no information over the phone and I could find nothing about this case online leads me to believe it is a fake case and their sole intent is to get me into their office to sell me something.

Business

Response:

Revdex.com of Northeast California Complaint ID# 10461691Dear [redacted] I am [redacted], founder and owner of Fraley & Fraley, Sacramento Bankruptcy Attorneys. This matter came to my attention before your contact with my office. [redacted], my marketing specialist came to me right after receiving a phone call from an individual with a female voice that refused to identify herself and was yelling at him. It now appears that Ms. [redacted]) is the same individual that he tried to have a conversation with. She first talked to my receptionist [redacted] was unable to provide her any information about the law suit letter and why she received it. Since she would not identify herself, [redacted] turned the call over to [redacted]. Again she would not give her name and was, as he put it “argumentative and brash.” Without a name, he could not look up and give her any specific information about her letter. He tried to let her know that all the information about the lawsuit on the letter and that the information was obtained from public records. The letter is an advertisement. Per California State Bar rules, the words “Legal Newsletter” is printed in 10 point print size on both the letter and the envelope. The information is in 10 point “Angsana New” type face on the front of the envelope and 10 point “Gabriola” type face at the top center of the letter right below the letterhead. Now that I finally have a name I have been able to pull up the letter and the information that the letter was based on. A reprinted copy of the envelope and the letter is included for you to review. ByState Bar Rules, we are required to keep a sample of our advertising mailers. We go beyond that in the fact that we can reprint every letter we send out. We are in full compliance with the State Bar advertising rules.There is a lawsuit. The case is from San Joaquin County which is why she could not find the lawsuit information. She was looking in the wrong county. Having her name would have allowed Mr. [redacted] to provide her the detailed information we are giving you. The letter she has includes all the information (other than the fact that it was in San Joaquin County) in it. The case number is also accurate. Both of these are evidenced in the documentation I am providing you now with this response. Mr. [redacted] would have been happy to provide her the same information if she had simply provided her name. Instead he was berated and hung up on.I sent the letter to her because, according to the information we got from a website "BeenVerified.com" that does searches for people, she goes by both the name listed on the case, “[redacted]” and the name she is using today, “[redacted].” It appears that she may also go by another alias “[redacted] Wells.” Another factor in choosing to send this individual a letter is that [redacted] recently lived in Stockton, which is in San Joaquin County, the same county that the law suit was filed in. Therefore it is likely though not 100% certain that she is the defendant in this law suit. A copy of the “BeenVerified Report” is being provided to you with this response. In looking at the San Joaquin County Courts website it appears that the defendant has not been served as of the day she complained to you and my office, and very well could be [redacted]. The Court Records show that the lawsuit appears to be based on some sort of auto accident. I have provided you with a copy of the San Joaquin County Court records.If she has not yet been served with the lawsuit it would be understandable that she may not be aware of the case. There have been occasions where people thought they had not been sued only tofind out later that, in fact, they had been sued.Our letter is meant to help people to know that they have options if they are sued. We do NOT and will never send out random letters about “fake” law suits to scare people. It would be unethical,useless and economically infeasible to do so and I would never do that.We never threaten people nor, as you can see, provide false information to them. They do not have to fear us, but they may be wise to prepare themselves to deal with the lawsuit by thecreditor. We just give them the facts we have based on the Court documents.We do our best to make sure the person listed on the law suit and the person we mail the letter to is the same person. We recognize that occasionally one of our letters may be accidentally mailed to someone with the same name who has not been sued.Because of that possibility we have a statement that reads as follows: “If we contacted you in error, and in fact it is another person with the same name that was sued, please accept our apologies and ignore this letter.” This is in bold located on the front of the letter as the first sentence in the first paragraph that would be read by the recipient.Whether or not the law suit is against Ms. [redacted] we cannot be 100% sure of but there is a fairly high probability is likely that it is. We have also covered the possibility of it not being the person sued in the letter as stated above.If Ms. [redacted] had a problem with our letter, she could simply have done what the letter says, and tossed the letter instead of getting upset at us.What we state in the letter is completely accurate and true. We are as described and help people who have financial problems. We stand by the accuracy of the information in letter.I am not going to stop sending letters to other people who have been sued. We have many clients who come to us based on the letters and very much appreciate receiving our letter so they candeal with the problem before or soon after they are served.I am truly sorry that Ms. [redacted] is upset at receiving our letter. I wish her well. It is never our intention to upset people, just to help them. I would note that this person is not, nor has never been a client/customer of our law firm. Based on her not being a client and the clear misstatements and inaccuracies in her allegations,I would request that this complaint not be placed on our Revdex.com records.Sincerely, [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:The information provided by Mr. [redacted] is incorrect. I did give my name ([redacted]) and told the gentleman I spoke with on the phone that I had a case number as well. He refused to give me any information regarding the case unless I made some sort of appointment with their office and told me I could find all the information I needed in the letter. He refused to tell me which court to contact regarding this case as well. I understand that this is some sort of advertisement for this particular law office but it is misleading. It states my name and an actual case number. I just wanted more information from the office that somehow had my name and this case number. There is no reference in the letter to previous legal names I have used or any connection to San Joaquin County where I previously resided. Had the gentleman I spoke with given me the information they provided to Revdex.com, I would not have needed to file a complaint.

This is the best bankruptcy attorney in Sacramento that I know of I recommend him and his staff to anyone who is going through or considering a bankruptcy in this office everyone is knowledgeable reassuring they make you feel like it's not the end of the world because you're filing bankruptcy.