Geordie Duckler - Portland, OR

A simple math problem was what ultimately destroyed what should have been a very good working relationship with Duckler and his staff. We hired Duckler to represent us after three alleged bite incidents involving our two dogs in the fall of 2020. They were to be held in quarantine at MCAS from 9/22 to 10/1. When MCAS hadn't returned our dogs to us by 10/7, we called Duckler and retained him the very same day. He wrote a letter to MCAS announcing his representation of us and appealed all six NOIs we were issued on 9/22. The dogs were returned to us without comment on 10/15/20. Nine months later (7/7/21), we still haven't received a hearing notification for the alleged incidents back in September. During those nine months, there were no incidents in our MCAS-approved secured backyard. It was only after our landlord removed bamboo from the inner fence line that the fence posts became unstable and our dogs spilled into the neighbor's enclosed backyard. Though unhurt and knowing exactly who owned the dogs, she called MCAS anyway. With money left in trust from the first round with MCAS, we called Duckler to re-activate him on our case. It turned out that the six NOIs that were issued to us on 9/22 were dismissed in favor of a new set of six NOIs that now read, "any further violations will result in the director suspending ownership of this animal". Sound fair to you? Read on, it gets worse. Months passed with nary a peep coming from Duckler's camp while our dogs are being treated like convicts in MCAS protective custody before ever having their case heard on appeal. But Duckler was keeping busy having his admins invoice us for charges of $90 in Aug and $150 for Sep. Then the hearing is finally set for 11/17. But the hearing notice revealed that MCAS was combining the Sep 2020 allegations (Level 4 behavior classification) and the fence incident (failure to comply) into one hearing. You don't need a law degree to see that the second citation (failure to comply) presumes the outcome of the first hearing which hasn't been heard yet. If that's not telegraphing a rigged system, I don't know what is. But rather than slamming his fist on the figurative table for his clients who are the target of a massive civil injustice, he went radio silent. An invoice was sent to us from his admin stating we owed him $240. That's all. Nothing about the hearing, the dogs, nothing. We sent his office three separate accountings of where their clerical error was: They took the appeal fee out of trust when we had already paid the fee ourselves (at his insistence, which he clearly forgot). If they simply put that money back in trust before subtracting the next two charges from the entire trust balance, they would clearly see their error. The night before the hearing, he leaves us a message telling us that the hearing was canceled giving us more time to prepare for the now rescheduled hearing on December 1st. He added that we just needed to take care of that $240 we owed him and he can get to work on this case. And in one final round of evidence vs. ego, Duckler withdrew from our case. We would all hope that our animal case attorneys would care about our animals nearly as much as we do. To empathize with us in a way that is in many cases much deeper than a typical human-to-human interaction. These animals are members of our families, crucial pieces of a fabric held together by a trust that we will all look out for each other. Always. So in final perspective, this man put the lives of our dogs on the line over a $115 mistake that he's too stubborn to admit to. Period. And now we're going against MCAS, the bully of bullies, alone with a less than 7% chance of victory. So, no. We wouldn't recommend Geordie Duckler for anything, especially representing you & your animals in any legal context. He's evasive, disrespectful, and has shown that he would choose to salvage his own ego over the life of a client's animal if pressed. Even if it's only over $100.