NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCE WITH MY LAWYERS
MANY THANKS TO MR. GUIBERT FORTIN FROM CANADIAN SOCIETY WHO SPENT A LOT OF HIS OWN TIME TO HELP ME TO CORRECT MY WRITING
The first time I started to use lawyers was in December 1995 when a terrible accident happened to my late wife. It was the first time I was using a lawyer in my whole life, and I believed that a lawyer would try the best to protect his clients’ rights according to the law and justice, and I totally trusted him without any question since he was working for me.
But ten years later, I must admit my experience has been devastating: these lawyers abused my trust, destroyed my business and my personal life, brought my family and myself into a nightmare, I got ill with a mental depression and survived side-effects from western depression medical treatment … It taught to me a great lesson...
I am a very traditional Chinese who like some other cultures (Jews for instance) respect their own words and make contracts once the words are out of their mouth. But I discovered this is not the world I was going through in the following years! Many people are dishonest, and selfish. Based on my values, I was naïve, I trusted these lawyers and all of this caused me more and more suffering until recently.
This lesson has taught me that there is no justice no matter how. Only money counts, And if the amount is significant, greed could push my own lawyer to become my worst enemy!
For nearly ten years, I never had a chance to meet a good lawyer, so it led me to lose everything I owned. It has put me in an unending nightmare. That is the reason why I have been unable to work because I cannot accept that injustice that fell upon my family and myself.
Below are descriptions of the events that happened with each of these lawyers. After reading those descriptions you will understand why I lost trust and hope gradually. My personal life went into a “deep shit” because of these people, and they just walked away without any consequences for their misbehaviour.
Enza Martucelli—Dec. 2, 1995 to …
This was the first lawyer I ever used in my life, and this encounter brought my life into a nightmare up until today…
She was sent by the YWCA and she was working at their legal clinic from time to time. I later learned that she had been disbarred since 1994 and also had a criminal record since 1991.
So she became a legal and family supporter when my late wife was in Montreal General Hospital Intensive Care Unit, fighting for her life following a terrible accident.
She defrauded me of $20,000.00 and also tried to get involved with my restaurant business. When the MUC Police removed her from my restaurant Sawatdee, I did a favor to help the Police protect the public by letting them use my evidences against my former lawyer Enza Martucelli.
Even though I brought some evidences to the MUC Police, Enza threatened me, the MUC Police detective and the Crown Prosecutor. She also called different government agencies to put me in trouble and managed to send mafia to my restaurant.
She successfully convinced my former employee Qingrui He to cooperate with her. Together, they registered a personal company using my restaurant’s name and address, then within three weeks, they stole $35,000 worth of sales from my restaurant until I discovered it.
Under a MUC Police investigation, they tried to walk away from criminal charges, without any proof. They both of them went the Superior Court and launched a lawsuit against me asking for $400,000 damages, claiming they owned an equal share in my company Maison Chuan Yang Inc.
The MUC Police told me that the evidence against them sounded good, and I should not worry since they will take care of this. But in fact it didn’t turn out the way they had predicted: the “criminals” successfully took advantage of the legal and justice system, they illegally operated my restaurant business without any punishment.
After that, the MUC Police and the Crown prosecutor didn’t want to be involved anymore with my case. So I tried to get some support from government agencies and medias. Finally Hour Magazine came to visit me in Jewish General Hospital where I was hospitalized, and published my story. The article that mentioned if the MUC Police wanted to arrest Enza Martucelli, they may find her in Sawatdee Restaurant because she was facing a court arrest order since 1997! But no one wanted to do anything to stop them. Then in June 1998, the MUC Police detective informed me that I should go to a criminal court as a witness since they went to close the case where she was involved (1997).
At the criminal court, the MUC Police and the Crown Prosecutor just wanted to close the case, claiming they shouldn’t waste citizens’ money on such a case. Instead of using my evidence, they used surround evidence of a $1,480 brought to the judge. Enza Martucelli pleaded guilty, so the judge wanted to settle my case and asked her what she wanted to do before he granted a sentence. So she convinced the judge that she would rather settle with me at a civil court instead of a criminal court. I was not called to testify!
Gilles Poulin & Anik Poulin—Jan. 1996 to Oct. 2003
Gilles Poulin was the former boss of Enza Martucelli, Enza bought me to him and convinced me that if I was lucky he would accept my case to against Le Buffet Heberge, which was the party responsible for my late wife tragic accident.
I paid a $2,000 advance to let him start the case. He told me his fees vary from 20 to 30%. The advanced deposit will be refunded when the case is won. I told him with a split of 25% for him and 75% for myself, I wished he would do better with my case!
When I got troubles with Enza Martucelli, the judge appointed him with the case she invented since Enza claimed to the judge that Gilles Poulin was my attorney. But he never mentioned to me that Enza Martucelli was no longer a lawyer because she had a criminal record. Instead, he put pressure on me, made me sign the contract otherwise he would not show up at the court, if he were so requested by the judge.
In the contract, his fees became suddenly 25% compensation plus tax. Also the court costs recovery belonged to him if he successfully got them back from the defendant. He promised that he would find a way to settle the tax parts once the case had been settled and that I shouldn’t worry about all this!
However the result is this: he took another $2,000 from me, which just made me to pay $100 to the lawyer that I suppose I don’t have to, return the computer and two shipping boxes to Enza Martucelli and Qingrui He, but he even never spoke to the judge about the facts!
He even never got back to me any single document hold by Enza as he had previously promised. Instead, he asked me to pay him another $5,000 right away in order to represent me in the case against me. Otherwise he would withdraw from representations. Given that I just got another fraud and I had lost $35,000 of sales, I requested him if he would let me pay him later since I had already given him an important case. But he refused.
With my late wife case, he refused to sue the doctor and the hospital for their negligence and disrespect for basic human rights. He never registered the case until 1998 (4 years of interests lost in a claim from compensation!), and he also never helped me analyze the right amount I should have asked.
Gilles Poulin never actively searched the evidence. I was the one who would initiate to provide all the strong proofs to support my case: like the document of my factory joint-venture Jiaxing Lailin Perfume Co. LTD. in China; like my Federal & Provincial Government half million undeclared income claim, also my psychiatry doctor medical report, my personal bankruptcy papers etc.
Instead, he asked me if I would accept a $30,000 settlement, then $80,000, and $150,000 till $200,000. When I refused, he convinced my eldest daughter because now she had turned 18 and she could make a decision on her own. He always tried to convinced us to settle for less otherwise we’d have to deposit another amount of $7,000 in order to start the legal procedure. He used all kind of excuses to avoid my questions about the unreasonable delay to proceed with this case.
In August 2003, having no other options, we agreed to meet with a mediator. I had no more money to pay him, but at the same time, before even discussing the settlement, he never told me what amount I should take and just asked us how much we wanted to put in our pocket. He also convinced us that we should reduce our total claim of about 30-40 %...because this is the settlement…
I brought all the facts to persuade the mediator that a 75% compensation for the settlement was a low amount for us according to the situation we are dealing with. The mediator disagreed to let us claim 4 years of interests and he told Anik as she is our attorney she should take care of that. I told Anik that since I have had so many legal problems to deal with, I gave up my claim for interests and choose the possibility of getting more legal services to help me out. We made a deal.
But when the compensation got to Gilles and Anik Poulin , they went beyond 25% from the compensation and added an extra $6,000 legal costs, which were previously included within their agreed 25%. They also added the tax on it which he agreed will find a way to settle. Furthermore, they refused to provide any legal services to me to cover the interests, and they refused to return a $2,000 deposit which they should have me refunded.
Of course I disagreed. Then they hold us we had become hostages… Up to today, they did not answered yet about my request for a detailed legal costs and services invoice with his signature of official receipt!
Stephen Angers—Feb. 2, 1996 to May 14, 1996
Stephen replaced Gilles Poulin and had been introduced by my former social worker to straight out with all the trouble Enza Martucelli had cost me with her $6,000 legal fees. I worried that $6,000 might not suffice to cover his costs and fees. I mentioned to him how many jobs he had to do about my restaurant insurance company.
He told me since I have a good lawyer, I should let my worries upon his shoulders and I should stay home and rest. The result with his job was that I agreed to add another $2,000 for his services and he promised me he would prepare a contract for me to sign, which was never prepared.
Stephen never proceeded the case against Enza & He, and he even never appealed to the court for the case against me on Feb 6th 1996; he also let the criminals seized my restaurant, Sawatdee, my personal savings including my RRSP and my eldest daughter’s savings account. My bank manager Madam Tina luckily protected my eldest daughter since I had dealt with this bank for many years and she knew the situation we involved in.
Furthermore, he referred my former employees to the Quebec Labor Department for lost salaries because of the fraud. Luckily only one employee reported to that Department and the others refused to do so because they knew that I never had acted towards them as a boss. Moreover, without my knowledge, he withdrew the complaints I had previously made with MUC Police. I just learned about this last year from a chief crown prosecutor.
On the other hand, Stephen squeezed more money from me and as much as possible: I paid him a $3,000 advance from the very beginning and although all my savings were seized, I still let him took $10,000 out of my import cost of silk cloth merchandise to secure the work he would provide for me. But once he saw I was holding $100,000 of merchandise, instead of trying to solve my legal problems, he introduced himself to my merchant agent and claimed he would help me to get some cash money for living since he had a lot of connections.
The results with his work were that once I had disagreed to let him sell my merchandise less one dollar a piece, by then, he never proceeded the case against the criminals at both court—civil & criminal as he had previously promised to do so. Even his employee, Me France St-Denis, also wondered why he had never done anything with my case.
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