What Happens When Your Lawyer Throws You Under The Bus?
By Jim Coe
Part-Two:
Today, I am going to spill the beans as I take you behind close doors at the Merit System Protection Board Hearing hereto called MSPB.
Keep in mind that as a military veteran I have the option of going before a MSPB Administrative Judge with a legal paid legal representation otherwise called your lawyer.
After an exhaustive Bar Association legal search for an experienced Federal Employment lawyer, I finally settled on Mitchell Kastner, Somerset County, New Jersey because of the fact Mitchell Kastner claimed to be a former MSPB Administrative Law Judge. I paid Mr. Kastner very well to represent me at the MSPB Hearing vs an Agency Attorney of the day with no Hearing experience.
The MSPB Hearing was directed by Judge Sandra J. Squire started shapely at 9:30 AM with the Agency making an Opening Statement as to why the Appellant was removed by the Agency.
After about 10 straight opening objections, Appellant’s Lawyer (Mitchell Kastner) because the Agency Supervisor Tony Brullo failed to answer any of his pre-written statements under oath, Judge Squire stopped the Hearing at 9:45am.
Judge Squire suggested I could shorten the financial stress if I prevailed on the merits by working out a Settlement Agreement with the Agency which she could enforce in 30 days vs. 2 years with Appeals.
At that point my lawyer stopped advising me and even breaks attorney/client privilege and threw me under the bus after telling me a few legal fairy tales to get me to sign the Settlement Agreement under the stress of the day.
In the words of my Union representative Tom Hynes upon discovering for the first time the gust of the Last Chance Agreement said at my Edison NJ Union Arbitration Hearing in 2007 the LCA was a legal written lynching by the Postal Service given the fact the Union never signed off on it.
Simply stated I did not need to pay a lawyer top $$$ to advise me to sign my Legal Death Sentence. I needed a lawyer to make me sign and the sad news is I over-paid him to throw me under the bus.
The moral of this story is before you sign any Settlement Agreement ask for time to call your wife, or mother or your best friend and read the Agreement to them, do you think I should sign this?
My goal here is to save future employees from throwing their hard earned savings out the window.
We must continue to post a lawyer beware blog list of bad Federal Employment lawyers like Mitchell Kastner, Somerset County, New Jersey Bar Association who I can not recommend you hire to represent you.
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