Ritzert & Leyton, PC

Review: When legal action became my only alternative to resolve a time line dispute with a business partner I consulted and retained Ritzert & Leyton PC for legal service. I accepted and signed their Retainer Agreement and promptly paid the required $25,000 retainer as well as $88,000 of subsequent invoices - always on time. Ritzert & Leyton filed a law suit on my behalf but trial was not scheduled for more than a year. They did not take advantage of the abundance of time to make trial preparations and nearly miss the Court deadline to designate Expert Witnesses. That left no time to compare Experts and select the most competent, instead they had to blindly make their designation and prey for the best. (see attached letter from [redacted] regarding his destination as a Witness before he had been retained by the attorneys). Unfortunately the Expert selected only produced useless and irrelevant information and was actually a detriment instead of a benefit to my case. Furthermore Ritzert & Leyton attorneys authorized him to perform $60,000 work/invoice which I was forced to pay over and above the attorneys billing. Then I received a last minute email from Ritzert & Leyton making demand for a $220,000 advance funds to be Wired into their account before they could proceed to trial.see copy attached As a firm policy, clients are required to pay a retainer in advance of billing before trial -and- we will need immediate turn around. This firm policy is nowhere found in their Attorney Retainer Agreement nor had ever mentioned before - an unheard of practice according to four other law firms I checked with. To accommodate their request I had to second mortgage my home. Once the attorneys had my money I was then informed in so many words that they were not prepared for trial (which they had just required the rush wire advance) and instead arranged meetings for me to discuss a settlement with my business partner forcing me to accept a merger settlement. I received no benefit from the exorbitant legal fees paid totaling over $453,000 for a relatively simple dispute with my business partner over a time line. This ultimately forced me into bankruptcy but with no concern from the attorneys whose deviously swindled nearly one half million dollars from me then never went to trial. I feel their ethics should be made public knowledge so future victims can be alerted.Desired Settlement: Ritzert & Leyton's was unable to provide any benefit thus no justification for their nearly half million dollars in legal fees charged for a minor law suite. However they have refused to participate in Virginia State Bar's billing dispute arbitration process so I do not expect them to cooperate with the the Revdex.com either. By publishing information regarding their business conduct and ethics it may prevent others from being victimized.

Consumer

Response:

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