. "0"^^ . . . "1"^^ . "2016-01-23T00:00:00"^^ . "0"^^ . "5"^^ . "The only reason why I gave Dempsey Roberts & Smith one star is because there is no zero star option available.\n\nI am a former client of Joe Riccio. It Is my opinion that this attorney is an unethical, incompetent liar. After I fired him, he submitted false statements about me to the court and prejudiced my case, in order to collect the fees I am disputing. He filed a motion to withdraw with false representations. During the pendency of the motion, he did not give me updates about the case, filed a motion for an order shortening time when opposition was pending, and did not reply to opposition and countermotion. He was still my attorney of record and should have continued to work on my case, while I was working on opposition and looking for new counsel, Meanwhile, he was charging me for all his \"work\" to sabotage my case. He filed a notice of lien before my bill was due when I fired him. I had always been current in payments, yet Mr. Riccio claimed that I refuse to pay. He represented to me that he \"will have hard feelings if I don't pay\" his bill.\n\nThe reason why I fired him was because he did not provide competent representation to me. He failed to protect my confidential information during electronic discovery and released it to the opposing party, despite my numerous requests to ensure a proper protocol be followed. Mr. Riccio told me that if I want to know what the procedure is for removing confidential information from electronic devices and attorney work product, I should ask the opposing party's expert myself (who, by the way, was not allowed to talk to me directly). It is extremely unprofessional and unethical to release a client's privileged info to the opposing party. I was told by Mr. Riccio that the info was not released, when, in fact, it was. Mr. Riccio also gave me improper tax advice, when he is not even a qualified tax attorney.\n\nI believe that after I told Mr. Riccio that I am alleging malpractice and breach of duty, he tried to \"save face\" and perform a noisy withdrawal by releasing my confidential information.\n\nHe claims to be a domestic violence attorney, yet, in my opinion, he abuses his clients himself."^^ .