Edward M. Livingston - Naples, FL

I wish I could give this attorney 0 stars! I hired Ed Livingston in my time of need, to help me protect my family business from Trademark Infringement. MR. Livingston took my money and started my case, but he is very very slow to do anything ever, and almost never returns any messages. MR Livingston filed the complaint for my lawsuit, but the court refused it calling it a "shotgun filing", lacking necessary facts and details. The court warned Mr Livingston of COMPLACENCY to shotgun filings, and instructed Mr Livinston to rewrite the complaint for our lawsuit, or have our case dismissed. This lawyer Mr Livingston is pretending he never received the email from the court ordering us to rewrite our "shotgun filing", the very emailed that was electronically generated and sent to him by the court! Mr Livingston sat by and did nothing, and let my case get dismissed! For 3 months after that, he stalled, and kept telling me he would refile our case, but he never would do it. He was dishonest with me in early May 2020, telling me my case had entered the discovery phase, so I needed to increase my retainer as pre agreed... only 1 problem, we never had entered the discovery phase of my case. Couple weeks after i increased my retainer, end of may, he let my case get thrown out! Now, Mr Livingston has $20,000 of mine, increased from the previous $10,000 pre discovery phase retainer. Problem is he had already quit working on my case, refusing to properly correct my initial complaint when we had a chance to do so. On top of all this, the company infringing on my trademark now is taking me to court challenging my trademark. We had momentum, and everything on my side. Not now. I spoke with Mr Livingston, and he convinced me to fight the trademark challenge, and forget the infringement lawsuit for now. He told me "the trademark infringement case does not mean anything if we cannot win this Trademark challenge". That was dishonest and not true! He took most of what should've been my $20,000 retainer to be in the discovery phase of my infringement lawsuit, and used it to start me down the wrong path, fighting the trademark challenge I didn't need to fight... Suspecting Mr Livingston was not honest, and did not have my best interest in mind at all, i eventually spoke with, and retained another attorney. Its only been a few months, and my new lawyer has my case going fantastic. I have momentum and control again. Mr Livinston was paid to do a job. He turned in unacceptable material to the court, refused to correct it when court asked us to, and then Mr Livingston ACTS like he didnt receive the final electronically generated email from the court, giving us 1 final chance to turn in an acceptable complaint...He then lies to me about how to proceed... I needed to refile my infringement lawsuit with the court, NOT fight the trademark challenge. When my new lawyer refiled my lawsuit, the trademark challenge was suspended. I paid Mr Livingston to do a job, get my trademark infringement lawsuit into court. He did not do that. He in fact QUIT trying to get my case into court, and went as far as to give me absolutely bad advice, to fight the trademark challenge, and not refile the infringement lawsuit. Mr Livingston refuses to refund my money, lots of money! Money I feel was cheated away from me. Mr Livingston was in breach of our contract by not performing comptently! His actions to me in this manner have been dishonest, unprofessional, and absolutely unethical!! I would never refer Mr Livingston to anyone. I think it should be a crime to take money from desperate people in need, promise to he'll them, charge them $500 an hour to act busy, and do nothing!! Be careful before you hire anyone. The law is set up to protect the lawyers, not you and I, the consumers. I really rate Ed Livingston 0 stars! Be careful out there...