I will always be grateful to Looney Tunes (her new nn) for giving me a voice when I didn't know how to find mine. She gave me direction and power. She validated the fact that what Matt did to me was wrong, and I was entitled to my day in court. I am so grateful. Unfortunately she was also mental. Such a shame.
She started blowing me off shortly after we sent Matt the demand letter and got the offer. I wanted her to send a rejection letter to them and she did not. According to my new attorney this is going to turn out fine, but this was the beginning of the misccomunication and confusion on my end. She stopped returning my messages nad didn't adhere to the timeline we had previously discussed as to when things would be filed. Everything was pushed until the last minute, she acted like it was no big deal while I was panicking and didn't know what the court rules were and whether this would ultimately work against me in court.
I ended up filing my own suit, (it was a simple one page form, but the atty filed it out- and it was full of mistakes, which I had to correct in white out at the court. Awesome.) but without additional documents she said she was writing. There was a barrage of text messsages flying back and forth which went something like this:
Emily: "What is the deadline for the amendment to be filed? If we have to file it by tomorrow, why don't we just file everything together tomorrow, rather than me rushing to the court right now? (And filing documents twice and paying filing fees twice.) I'm confused."
Looney Tunes: "It is my legal advice that you to file your simple form today, and if you fail to do so, you are sabotging your case."
E: "But is it due tomorrow? Don't I have to pay a filing fee each time we file? Why aren't we filing it all together?"
LT: "It is my legal advice you file that form today, otherwise you are sabotging your case."
E:" But when is the due date?"
LT:" It is my legal advice that you file today, I really believe you are trying to sabotge your case!"
E" But what is the due date? Is it tomorrow?"
LT:" If you fail to follow my advice, I cannot be held responsible for your sabotge!"
.... I ultimately went tot he court and filed. And what did the clerk tell me? That once I filed, if put a "hold" on that Amendment (super spimlfying here) and it didn't have to be filed for 3 more months.... Meaning my attorney had three more months to write it. She probably hadn't even started it.
When I got home from court and I didn't write her right away and tell her what happened she wrote an emotional plea basically saying she was sure I was going to fire her.
Then she wrote another email two days later (before I could digest what the court had said + her whacked out message) that was even longer saying that she couldn't imagine my clients asking what camera or lenses I use, or what f-stop I was shooting at, so I shouldn't ask her questions about her job/my case.
I wrote her a long email back making parallells between my job and hers stating basically that, YES clients DO ask those questions and it is our job to educate them. Also, the more familiar or interested they are in our field, the more questions they ask. Many photographers post a "What's in our bag" page on their website and list all of their gear. Many photographers who specialize in a different field of photography, ie, studio or landscapes will approach me in a dark reception where i am using no flash and ask what the heck settings I am on and to peer at what lens I'm using because they could never get good results like that. (Different technique- natural light shooters use ambient light and shoot "wide open" aka, big apeture. Totally different style.) Vice versa aplies too. My landscapes suck. Take a look at ALL of my vacation photos!
Anyway, LT didn't respond, so I gave her three weeks, then wrote her to check in. She wrote a flaming email back to me saying she had demanded my abusive treatment of her stop or she would be forced to fire me as a client. (WTF?) She said she did not want me to take pictures of her (I had offered as a trade), because her uncomfortable, constipated expression would surely scare clients away (something to that effect) from her website. That for all of her tireless hours of hard work on my case had resulted in nothing but a lesson learned.
....
So my therapist thinks that I fail to recognize red flags in other people.
I still offered to take her pictures. I stand by my word.
My new attorney (NA)is a friend from law school and I never felt so put together as when I met with her. I understood everything she was talking about; it was like being back in law school. We were issue spotting, it was like looking at a law school exam rather than me feeling overwhelmed and emotional and lost while LT bounced around ideas I didn't understand. NA thinks in a linear way that makes sense, and didn't mind at all helping because 1.) it's a situation of injustice, 2.) we're friends, 3.) her name isn't going anywhere on this thing so it really doesn't matter anyway whether she's involved. She has a couple of colleagues from her office helping her, and like I wanted with LT, we are working as a team. She wrote an outline for the Points & Authorities for my Amendment, and provided the law, and I just need to plug in the facts and analysis. She'll fix it after I make a big emotional vomit mess of it, I'm sure, or reign me back in, if necessary.
In the parking lot as we said goodbye, she announced she had had tumors taken out of both her breasts. They had done a double lumpectomy right after she graduated law school and is typical of my friend, she told no one. She is too young to have gone through that and it killed me that once again she had gone through something horriffic by herself. I cried in the parking lot and I cried on the way home and I cried that night.
I am so grateful that she's here to help me!
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