The Bret Beattie Law Firm, LLC - Denver, CO

Hired attorney to do case. Paid $15,000 and he left. Paid him almost $7,000 in April, he never replied to opposing legal counsel, filed papers that were wrong and then at the end up and left to California. I did file a complaint with the bar association. Even told me that I don't have the right to ask for 50% of my money back. Had to pay new lawyer and have to meet with them to go over everything because the file wasn't even passed over in its entirety to the new legal counsel that I didn't hire he just passed the case to when he left.

My purpose for seeking an attorney was to deal with an issue of fraud involving the sale of solar panels to my business. Mr. Beattie emailed me back that day, and after a little supplemental info in response to his questions, he believed it “sounds like fraud”, or “maybe breach of fiduciary duty.” After a brief phone call to discuss the issue further, I paid him a 5 hour retainer at his specified hourly rate of $350/hr, which was to cover the initial legal work to draft a letter to the individual that had defrauded me. We met at his office on February 5th to devise a plan. During the meeting at “his” office (he rents space from another law firm), he seemed frenetic and argumentative over seemingly trivial details, but I chose to overlook these issues because I was eager to address this legal issue. He emailed me on February 8th asking for any correspondence that would be helpful to the case, and indicated he would have a draft ready in a couple days. I sent the requested info to him on February 11th. After multiple emails from me asking if the draft letter was ready for review, and multiple emails from him with excuses about being unusually busy with court dates, he finally sent me a draft on February 25th. Despite Mr. Beattie’s claim that letters of these sort aren’t boilerplate, it was a fairly simplistic letter with multiple errors, including my name and the name of my business. The fact that I had to proofread the writing of someone I was paying $350 per hour was frankly insulting. Mr. Beattie received the response to our letter and forwarded it to me on March 11 (he indicated he was once again swamped with trial work and had not yet reviewed it). I reviewed the letter and sent him a detailed response the same day, highlighting the multiple areas in which I believed the response letter was factually incorrect. Since the email from Mr. Beattie forwarding the response letter to me, I heard nothing from him for 3 weeks. I emailed him on March 25th asking if “I need to hire another lawyer,” which went unanswered. I left a voicemail for him on March 29th which also went unanswered. I emailed him on April 1st and said I was now operating under the assumption that it was his plan to take my retainer and disappear, and if it isn’t he should respond to me immediately, which he finally did. He explained that he was once again overwhelmed with trial work, and had also recently dealt with a divorce and some behavioral issues with his son. He indicated that he hadn’t done anything regarding the response letter at that point (including even reading it, presumably). He suggested we speak briefly later in the week, and he agreed to “squeeze it in” Friday morning around a school meeting regarding his child. He never called. Another week passed without hearing from him and I emailed him the following Friday asking why he had not contacted me yet again. His response was, “you can call me too.” He indicated that he had finally read the response letter, and only I could tell him what an appropriate response would be to the defensive claims (I did exactly that in the email I sent Mr. Beattie the same day I received the response letter, which he very clearly did not bother to read). He said he would be willing to speak for a few minutes to discuss whether it made sense to move forward with any legal action, and I told him I could be available anytime during that week, just let me know when. He didn't. After a final email to him to voice my displeasure with his work, he made a last-ditch effort to save face, which I refused. I don't believe I've ever experienced more unprofessional behavior from a so-called professional.

Unfortunately, these days if you are in a business requiring errors and omissions insurance, it is only a matter of time until you will be sued. There are people who sue insurance for a living. You need a real attorney, not some hack that the insurance company picks-who is probably in a rock & roll band with the plaintiff's attorney. Brett and his team shut them down. He actually came to my house, a 3+ hour drive from Denver, to spend an entire day learning about the case.