ComplaintsforTiveron Law PLLC

• Initial Complaint

  09/04/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  2 years ago at this point (give or take), I paid a $1,000 retainer to the tiveron law firm (At the time ***** *******) to oversee my wife's immigration paperwork , to make sure there were no errors. After months of waiting , the final packet was given to the firm to send in to us immigration; a couple weeks after, I was told by said law office there was a missing signature. Multiple years waiting simply for the firm to take the information provided , and put into a packet. About a month ago, I received the attached document from immigration, saying my marriage license apparently hadn't been done properly, which is an issue tiveron should've caught. I contacted them and told them I was cutting ties , and wanted my money back. I was told it would have to be ran past the owner. That was about 3 weeks ago now, and despite what they said, have not given me any written assurance that I'd be getting money back for their mistakes, and when I've called again, am told oh the owner /partner still needs to review my message. So, I paid them $1,000 to make sure my paperwork was done correctly - it wasn't - and not only did they **** up, but now they're trying to ignore me until I go away. I even left a message for their customer relations representative, as to an email to send the attached file , so they can see what I was talking about , and so far have been ignored.

  Business response

  09/24/2024

  Dear Kevin,  We are in receipt of your notification about a complaint filed by one of our clients, ******* ******, requesting a refund. I am writing to you regarding this complaint and request of a refund with the above reference matter with our firm. My apologies for the delay in responding back to you, but it takes some time to review a file and to decide if any relief is to be made.  I would like to address the issues being claimed:  1) ***** ******: After substantial delays, found out "very much after" everything was in  motion, that there was apparently only 1 paralegal/lawyer working on the bulk of immigration cases - hence delay.  RESPONSE: Yes, at this time our firm has a qualified paralegal with 15 years of immigration experience and we have had several attorneys in the past with many years of  experience. As with any business, attorneys have come and gone, but we have at all times had a qualified attorney handling our immigration matters.  Our firm is a full service law firm, offering services in different areas. As one of WNY's largest and most experienced law firms, operating for over 50 years, we have a skilled team of professionals. The number of lawyers and paralegals in any of our departments vary at any given time. We have never made any claims to be strictly an immigration law firm.  2) ***** ******: Received letter from Immigration requesting more evidence. Marriage  License had not been sent in. Basically they didn't have Marriage License.  3) ***** ******: Came to law firm for help on this to avoid “Literally this exact situation”  of sending in package, finding out it is messed  up, delay.  RESPONSE: The marriage license was included in the original petition and was on page 32 of the scanned petition. It is a valid Certificate of Marriage subscribed and sworn by the Town Clerk and certified by the officiant.  The information requested from USCIS, specifically the "Marriage License" was definitely included in the packet sent to USCIS on June 22, 2023. There was NO mistake. Our procedure for submission of all our petitions is to have repeated final reviews of the entire packet by more than one person. Right before the mailing of the packet to USCIS the petition is scanned into our electronic file. Our electronic file of the petition was scanned on June 22, 2023 at 5:45 PM and immediately picked up by ***. This process is done to assure that the final packet is complete and intact without any errors to its completion and submission of forms and documentation. ---Attached is a clip of the electronic record of when the petition was scanned by our office and Confirmation of delivery to USCIS.  We also have a copy of the online USCIS View Case notations of the case history, and according to USCIS when the petition was reviewed by a USCIS official on November 9, 2023 it stated “Our records showed nothing is outstanding at this time." The first time USCIS reviewed the file was 5 months after our submission. The next time USCIS looked at the Petition was in August 2024 (10 months later). We are now looking at 15 months from the time of our submission.  --Attached is a copy of the USCIS online View Case record from their website.  From our experience, USCIS can list documents that you know you've already submitted. Immigration officials who adjudicate your case are human; they may have overlooked something. But it is likely you need to submit this additional evidence to corroborate facts in your request.  2   0 4) ***** ******: Between delays and the job was not actually done correctly - has taken 2  years to wait for any response, now they need more.  We have already addressed the fact that the petition was submitted correctly and it was not "messed up” or as ******* stated “#$%$# up”. Also, it has not been 2 years to wait for a response, as noted before, it has actually been 15 months that the petition is in the hands of USCIS.  Let it be clear, that USCIS determines the timeframes for all the petitions they process. USCIS publishes estimated processing times for different application types on its website on a daily basis. Keep in mind these are just estimates, and actual timeline might vary.  At the time of submission in June of 2023, we noted the file with a processing time of 13.5 months. As of 9/5/2024 the processing time for an I-130 is 15.5 months with only 80% of cases being completed within that time. We are still within the allowable processing time for your petition.  -- - See attached Processing Time from the USCIS website as of 9/5/24.  USCIS changes the processing times depending on the number of applicants, petitions, workload, staffing allocations, as well as policy and operational changes, amount other factors, which all are out of our control.  The client many times pleaded over the past year for our paralegal to see how his petition can be expedited, he was provided the information of the only ways to expedite. Unfortunately, his I- 130 petition did not qualify. In brief, expedite requests can be submitted if they are emergencies or urgent humanitarian situations; severe financial loss to a company or person; for furtherance of cultural or social interests of the United States; Government interests that involve the public interest, public safety, national interest and if it was a clear USCIS error. Even expedited does not guarantee a response.  Outside of these 5 expedited situations stated above, the paralegal did inform the client that the only other option would be for the client to get a high level politician (Washington DC type) involved.  Also, in general it is advisable to avoid contacting USCIS unless there's a significant delay beyond the normal processing time or have a specific question requiring clarification from a USCIS response, USCIS will not speak to anyone if it us before the normal processing time. That is USCIS' policy.  To address the remark in regards to the delay of working on the file, you must understand that cases are worked on with periods of some time lapses. Emergencies and urgent matters always take precedence, especially in a law firm setting.  Completing any petition takes a great deal of time and investigation of the information and documents. Petitions and information need to be exact. From the questionnaires the client,  3  0  *******, and his fiancé, *****, submitted there was some information that was incorrect and/or missing. It is a process of drafting and re-drafting to get the information correct. During the time of working on the file, it needs to be noted that some of the delays were due to information and copies of documents that were not submitted after our review. The initial list of documents needed were supplied to the client on January 10, 2022. There are several emails with missing information and documents that were sent throughout March and April of 2023 of missing birth certificate and passport of ***** and including a missed signature by *******. --Attached are some emails showing the incorrect/missing information that should have been supplied initially.  As stated in the retainer agreement ******* ****** signed, it is impossible to guarantee any results or how long it may take to complete any particular matter. You can rest assure the client has been charged only for the time we devoted to his particular case. In fact, there were times that were not charged to the client by the paralegal. As noted in our retainer "all e-mail exchanges, telephone calls, telephone consultations and conversations are billed at the same rate as other legal services." Our records indicate that 80 emails from and to the client were recorded. As seen in the billing, there are not 80 entries of emails charged to the client at the discretion of the paralegal for some courtesy of no charges knowing circumstances to save the client money.  While it was helpful to hear the client's opinion regarding the details of his case and after my careful consideration of this matter I have made the decision to not refund the amount of funds remaining in the account. First of all, our firm is still considered the Attorney of Record with USCIS and we will be expecting more information to come in from USCIS, hopefully just the Final Approval and Interview information. I feel that our diligent efforts and commitment to achieving a favorable outcome on our client's behalf has been accomplished, in addition, our legal services have been performed.  I appreciate your patience and cooperation throughout this process. 

• Initial Complaint

  09/26/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired *********** to help look into my mother's estate after she passed away. My brother refused to let the two siblings see the books. My one sibling and I feel that some shenanigans went on with the money and that my two oldest brothers received more money than my youngest brother and myself. I was requesting to see the books kept by my brother, how he sold stock out from under his three siblings, and what the stocks were and their value. I also requested to find out the location or what happened to all her jewelry that was in a safe deposit box until after her death. Any question I asked my attorney, she said I would look into it, but I never received any answers to my questions. I went months and months with no contact at all with my attorney. Then one day she calls me in a panic about an up-and-coming court date. I had no clue what she was talking about after I had not heard from her in a minimum of 6 months, possibly 9 months. I talked with my brother about the court date, and we decided to stop trying to figure out what happened to the estate because this attorney had no clue what she was doing. She took it upon herself to reschedule the court date, and I told her we would not be proceeding with her and ***********. I then reached out to the owners, ***********, and asked to talk with them about the lack of help from the attorney and that she did nothing for all the money that she billed us for. At the end of November 2022, a woman contacted me and stated that the owner asked her to see what was going on. I told her, and she said she would pull my file, review everything, and get back to me in December. I just forgot to ask in December of what year. I have sent two letters requesting a refund for nothing being done on my case, and both letters went unanswered. I want to make other people aware not to hire *********** to help with estate issues because they will just empty your bank account and not provide any resolution to your situation.

  Business response

  10/05/2023

  We have received and reviewed the client's concerns and have corresponded with her regarding the same. We documented all communications, work products completed, and reason for delay (Court file backlog and court understaffing due to Covid). Since our client correspondence involves privileged material, we cannot share those communications here. Discounts were provided to this client, but a full refund wasn't warranted, given a signed retainer agreement and completed work product. 

  Customer response

  10/05/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.   This company reached out to me once in November of 2022 after I sent a letter to the owners of the company. I was to receive a return phone call when the woman reviewed my entire file, and this has never happened. Again, I forgot to answer December of what year she would be calling back.  I have sent several letters requesting funds back because at this point, they are charging me over $3,000.00 for obtaining the Will ONLY. I received one discount, when I proved that I told my attorney that we did not want to reschedule a court date that I did not even know was being scheduled. My attorney left me in the dark for the entire process and only contacted me when she scheduled court date that was not requested. I was left hanging for months on end with not update or follow-up. My account was padded, and work was not even completed. This attorney could not even tell me what stock was sold out from under my two brothers and myself and could not even tell me what happened to all my mother's jewelry that was held in a safe deposit box till after her death. All she kept telling me is, I cannot help with anything before your mother's passing. All this stuff was done or went missing after my mother's passing. They did no more than $500.00 worth of work, and I am requesting the amount of $2800.00 be returned. I am also reaching out to the Attorney General, State Bar Association and local media now.  Regards,  ***** ***********

  Business response

  10/09/2023

  The client signed a retainer agreement. BBB should close this complaint. 

  Customer response

  10/12/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.   Yes, I signed a retainer, but I did not sign a retainer that they could keep padded for over a year for work not performed. So, I am to pay over $3,000 for them to retrieve a "WILL" that I do not even think is the full "WILL" in question. There is no proof of how stock was sold after the passing of my mother. No, proof of theft of jewelry that was in a safe-deposit box after the passing of my mother. NO PROOF THAT THEY DID ANYTHING AT ALL BUT OBTAIN A WILL! The crap that things were held up because of COVID is just an excuse. How did COVID stop them from finding out the attorney used to supposedly settle the estate? How did COVID keep them from obtaining the books from my brother, who lives in Cheektowaga? This firm is taking advantage of the small number of clients they had because people were staying at home during COVID and did not need legal help.Yes, they may have written on the invoice that work was done, but I have no way to prove that they actually did the work because I received nothing from them. I can say I have a ton of calls that I did not make and bill someone. I want proof of work performed, not just what was written on a statement. I also wonder if this is being rejected because ********** is not around anymore. New company has no clue what the old company actually did.   Regards, ***** ***********

• Initial Complaint

  08/20/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  They keep sending me an invoice with interest when I never used their services, signed any agreement or even know what I am being charged for. I called and told them this but they did not remove the charges.

  Customer response

  08/25/2022

  Hello. I would like to dismiss my complaint # ********. I spoke with them and they agreed to take care of the invoice. Thank you.

  
  

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