Legal Assistance Center of Orange County

Based on the original complaint and subsequent follow up, our response is as following: Our office provides Legal Document Preparation Service including Paralegal ServiceWe do not have an Attorney on site and as mandated for an LDA which is not a requirementWe are licensed and Bonded by the OC Recorder's officeWe tell ALL of our client's upfront that we DO NOT give LEGAL ADVISE which an Attorney ONLY can giveOur service is to prepare Legal Documents and submit them to Courts based on the information provided by the ClientWe are in the process of updating our website at our expenses as outlined in the complaint, which will update the information and clarify the differences between Paralegal Services and LDA service to our clientsThe subject client, if he had followed our initial recommendation based on our past experience, there would not have been any issuesThe subject client's previous Attorney and Spouse would not speak to himWe had to contact his Attorney for "Substitution of Attorney" documents, so we could file documents on behalf of the Subject ClientThis type of activity is normally handled by our clientsThe subject client was given a court date by the judge to appear and explain his situation to him and he refused to go to the Court.( see attached)The Receipts that the Subject Client complaints about, are attached along herewith and they clearly state, that we have non refundable policy which is enforced with no exceptions as after the document preparation service that we have provided and submitted to the court, we have no recourse to collect the funds laterLDA Association mandates this provision and also clearly states " PARALEGALS are not ALLOWED to prepare legal documents for ConsumersOnly an LDA or an attorney can prepare and submit LEGAL documents to the Court(Receipts attached)As indicated earlier the subject difficult client had habit of sending unprofessional emails on a daily basis and an example is attached for reference only( One example attached and many more on file)Lastly we reiterate to the subject client , stop blaming us for the mistakes madeWe apologize that we were unable to meet your expectationsDuring the first visit to our office, when told that we are unable to provide any Legal Advise, the subject Client could have walked out of the office with no payment made and all would be well with no dissatisfaction.Thank you

Our Business is an Legal Document Assistant ( LDA ) office as evident on the main door as one enters our offices which shows we provide LEGAL " Document Preparation Service"The office is Bonded and Licensed by the OC Clerk -Registrar's OfficeWe are able to provide Paralegal services as well,
based on our expertise and availability of various Attorneys which are accessible to us as neededWhen we contact our Attorneys' our clients do not pay high Attorney's fees unless the Client retains them for their services.The subject client came to us for a service that we have provided before to other clients and he was given an option that we know has worked in the past which required signature of his ex spouse and he argued with us that she would not sign the required documents but the subject client did not accept our proposal , instead he wanted to take a different route of submitting the Court documentsOur office prepared various forms per his request and direction for Court submittalCourt usually takes two to four weeks to process and approve the Documents as they are submitted through a Legal Process serving currier The subject Client was given this time frame however he would follow up with our office with "not so friendly Emails" or "phone messages" on almost on a daily basis and some of them were very rude.Unfortunately his documents were submitted at least three times to the Court as they were not acceptable to themThe subject Client was given a Court Date to present his Case to the Judge which he refused to entertainWe have spent much more than what we charged him for the LDA services we provided and as per Company Policy "No refunds " are givenWe have this posted in our office and the subject client was given a receipt for his payment which also says, " No Refunds are given for our Document preparation service as the time is spent in preparing various forms up front before they are signed off by the client and are submitted to the Court.As an Licensed LDA we are authorized to prepare Legal Documents but only at the direction of the Client and that is why the questions were asked while preparing his documents 3and the Client was told this upfront and was also told that we are not authorized to give him any Legal Advice.We are sorry and apologize that we could not fully satisfy subject client's needs costing him time and money but if the Correct path was taken from the beginning we would not be going through this situation and have to read and listen to the Subject Client's unprofessional abusive emails and messages.( Examples are available in our office).Thank you for this opportunity to explain our position regards to this matter.We will be updating our website to clarify our services and provide additional details which should be updated by May 5th,

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Regards,
*** ***
A copy of their web site is attached, specifically stating that they provide paralegal services, which is what I hired them for, then after they messed up the simple forms that I hired them to submit for me, they send me an email [also attached] stating that, no, they have no paralegals working there. Now they're stating that they have access to paralegals if necessary? Dang, which is it already? And if they DO have access to actual legal professionals, why didn't they consult them after the first time the courts returned their feeble attempt at filling out a simple form? Of course they're going to be changing their web site, now that they've been called out on their advertising, which is okay because the internet remembers everything... There wasn't sign in their office stating a no refund policy [although there probably is now...], and the receipt I got, which I signed [also attached] states no such thing. I do have proof that they faked one up by placing my signed receipt over the top of some document that they must have just made up to make it look like I signed a receipt stating no refund, but anybody can tell it's just a cheap attempt at deception [also attached], besides, a refund is defined as "money returned for services rendered" which they never actually completed, had they actually filed the document correctly which the courts accepted, and I wanted my money back, then THAT would be considered a refund.Attached also is the snail mail letter that I sent to them, professionally asking them to reimburse me the money that they cost me, and to show them that I'm a reasonable, nice guy, I even offered them a 20% discount off what I paid out of pocket, and never should have had to. I would certainly like to see what they consider an "abusive email", which must be a completely different definition of what I consider abusive. Telling them that they are very incompetent, with proof of this from the courts, is the harshest I ever got with them. If that's what they're crying about, then the legal arena is by far the wrong business for them to be in.When I first hired them, yes, they asked me questions of the sort, like name, address, ex-wife's info, etcbut after the first failed filing attempt, they had me in their office and were asking me legal question on how to fill out the form, questions that any legal professional would have known the answers to. Yes, I did tell them that my ex-wife's signature wasn't needed on the form ONLY AFTER the courts told me that, which I also have proof of by the fact that when I filled out and filed the form, it did not have my ex's signature on it and the courts accepted it first time, no problem.Yes, I had to be in daily contact with them to try to get them to tell me what was taking so long, daily emails for weeks and weeks, receiving only the generic response that the courts are taking their time, or they lost the paperwork, or it went to the wrong office, all lies, until I finally fired them and went to the courthouse myself, and within hours time I had all the information I needed, which was, the clerk at the help center telling me that my "service" messed up the forms so bad that it had to be kicked back to them multiple times. THAT was the real information that they didn't want to give to me.The ONLY truthful thing they've stated in their response to my complaint is that they never did give me any legal advice, which I never asked them for, thank god for that! One can only imagine how much more of a horrifying mess I'd be in had they actually tried to give me legal advice...Virus-free.www.avast.com

Based on the original complaint and subsequent follow up, our response is as following: 1. Our office provides Legal Document Preparation Service including Paralegal Service. We do not have an Attorney on site and as mandated for an LDA which is not a requirement. We are licensed and Bonded by the OC Recorder's office. We tell ALL of our client's upfront that we DO NOT give LEGAL ADVISE which an Attorney ONLY can give. Our service is to prepare Legal Documents and submit them to Courts based on the information provided by the Client.2. We are in the process of updating our website at our expenses as outlined in the complaint, which will update the information and clarify the differences between Paralegal Services and LDA service to our clients.3. The subject client, if he had followed our initial recommendation based on our past experience, there would not have been any issues. The subject client's previous Attorney and Spouse would not speak to him. We had to contact his Attorney for "Substitution of Attorney" documents, so we could file documents on behalf of the Subject Client. This type of activity is normally handled by our clients. The subject client was given a court date by the judge to appear and explain his situation to him and he refused to go to the Court.( see attached)4. The Receipts that the Subject Client complaints about, are attached along herewith and they clearly state, that we have non refundable policy which is enforced with no exceptions as after the document preparation service that we have provided and submitted to the court, we have no recourse to collect the funds later. LDA Association mandates this provision and also clearly states " PARALEGALS are not ALLOWED to prepare legal documents for Consumers. Only an LDA or an attorney can prepare and submit LEGAL documents to the Court. (Receipts attached)5. As indicated earlier the subject difficult client had habit of sending unprofessional emails on a daily basis and an example is attached for reference only. ( One example attached  and many more on file)Lastly we reiterate to the subject client , stop blaming us for the mistakes made. We apologize that we were unable to meet your expectations. During the first visit to our office, when told that we are unable to provide any Legal Advise, the subject Client could have walked out of the office with no payment made and all would be well with no dissatisfaction.Thank you.