Utilized and paid-for the services of Ms. Gale of the law offices of Hunt, Walsma & Gale to record an AZ trustee deed in October 2018. Provided a copy of a living trust and a few weeks later (a bit slower than desired but not worthy of criticism) the deed was submitted to the Yuma County recorder. Done deal, no complaints; services rendered were acceptable at a reasonable price.

Fast forward two months and my Macbook's hard-drive crashes, losing all saved documents. I no longer have a digital copy of the living trust, which is necessary during escrow/title research to sell the home that was recorded in Yuma in the aforementioned trustee deed prepared by the law offices of Hunt, Walsma & Gale.

I call the law office and request an emailed copy of the trust. Shouldn't be an issue, right? It's the same doc we gave them back in October and they certainly still have it on their drive/server.

An assistant of Ms. Gales (Seneca) says "that she (Seneca) doesn't handle wills & trusts and, unfortunately, the individual (Donna - apparently a different assistant of Ms. Gales) that handles these duties leaves early each day but that she will forward my request to her".

After not receiving a call back the following day, I call (again) with the same request. This time, I get Donna (the other assistant that handles wills & trusts and likely the individual that handled my trustee deed in the first place back in October):

-Me: "Hi, I need a copy of our trust emailed to me; unfortunately I no longer have a digital copy"

-Donna: "I have to check with Ms. Gale and she isn't available today"

-Me: "So, it's simply the same document we gave to you, a few months ago. It'll take you less than 1 minute to locate the doc and email my way. Whats the problem?"

-Donna: "Well, I also need to find out if we will be charging you FOR THIS PHONE CALL IN ADDITION TO THE FEE FOR EMAILING THE DOCUMENT.

-Me: "So, if I understand correctly, I retained your services to create and file a trustee deed and now I simply need for you to email me the same document that we created and emailed to you when we hired you... and you need to investigate if YOUR OFFICE IS GOING TO CHARGE ME FOR CALLING TO ASK YOU TO EMAIL ME THE DOCUMENT IN THIS 45-SECOND TELEPHONE CONVERSATION?"

End of call

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Ummmm, I honestly don't know where to begin. My suspicion tells me the office has a few younger'ish, preparing-to-be attorneys or paralegals handling the administration of casework/paperwork and that they may not have extensive life + industry experience, but this is beyond the pale. Full blown unacceptable for a small firm to treat a client as such. Downright absurd really - My jaw is still on the floor. Complete lack of common sense and reasonable business acumen & accommodation.

Yikes. Will not use again for future legal services and will recommend others steer clear. Just wow.

That feduciary tho

Shes a good attorney and us very knowledgeable