Pro Bono Lawyer Admitted He Had "no Experience" In Housing Law, Then Gave Advice That Caused Me To Lose All My Belongings. Is This Malpractice?
Location: Pennsylvania, Chester County
I have been trying to move past this but it just does not feel right to me.
I qualified for legal aid through an "Access to Justice" program in Pennsylvania for a landlord-tenant dispute based on low-income. The amount of worry and stress I had was lifted just knowing I was going to have an attorney and when the private attorney who accepted my case reached out for me to meet with him I was very excited and so thankful. When the first thing the attorney that is going to be handling a landlord-tenant matter explicitly says "I have no experience in landlord-tenant law." but he would look into was not the best way to start things off but it was the court date was 2 days away and he said he was going to requests a stay and that it will be granted so I trusted he was going to look into everything.
I was not safe living where I was due to habitability issues and risk of physical violence from landlord. He asked where I was with finding some place to move to, and I told him I had a found a place and if needed I could sign a lease early and move in May 26th, but I needed time to get money for rent, security, moving costs, and help to move my things (It was May 4th when I first learned that my landlord had filed to evict me and the court date was set for May 14th). He wanted this information because he was going to call my landlord to see what information he could get from him and show him that I was going to be leaving. Without my permission, the lawyer told my landlord I would be out by the end of the business day on May 27th. When I told him that wasn't enough time, he told me not to worry, and that its to keep the landlord happy with hope to keep me safe while I was still there. I then told him that I was never given a notice to quit, the water was shut off for 5 days (and had proof from water company), he had changed the locks and did not give me a key, put up cameras inside the house that record audio with out telling me (PA is two party consent state under the "wire tapping law") and that learned that under local township law, the landlord did not have a required renter's license and could not legally collect rent or evict me. I asked if he had looked into all of this and he had not. I ended up sending him an email with a screen shot of the town laws stating this. The lawyer told me to vacate the property by the 27th, claiming that when we went to court, the judge would throw out the eviction due to the lack of a license, forcing the landlord to restart a formal 30-day process. He claimed this would buy me the time I needed to safely retrieve the rest of my belongings. He was even going to get the court date moved to June 4th and he did.
I followed his advice. However, just a 2 days before the court date, the lawyer contacted my landlord directly. He warned the landlord that he lacked a license, would face fines, and would lose the case, so his "best option" was to withdraw the eviction.
The landlord immediately withdrew the case. Because the case was dropped and I was already out of the unit, my remaining belongings were legally classified as "abandoned property." I not only lost everything I owned because of this advice except for important papers some furniture half my cloths and a few personal items, but also my securty deposit. I only meet my attorney in person once for maybe 45 mins, and had 3 scheduled phone calls that lasted no longer that 10 mins if that. All he had to do was just go to the court once. Just once.
Did this attorney violate ethical rules regarding competence (Rule 1.1) or communication? Do I have grounds for an official complaint or a malpractice claim?
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