Deppman Law PLC

I previuosly wrote "I am on the fence about Deppman." After writing that short review last year, I stopped in to the office to make a payment and the clerk said "Oh, I thought you were here to yell at me." (due to my 3 star review!). The review was, and still is very fair!

I found Lesley to be slow to respond, if she responded at all to my emails and in person inquiries. In over a year working together I never once met Lesley, though I stopped in to the office approximately 10 times to make payment, drop of paperwork etc.. She was always 'at lunch, in a meeting, on the phone, and so on.' While the case may have been small to Deppmann, it was vitally important to my life. A little effort on Lesley' part would have meant a lot. If I had still been residing in Texas or California I would have fired Lesley in a hot minute. Unfortunately there is not much competition in the eviction business locally. With more competition their office would be much quicker and more responsive or they would lose a lot of customers.

Aside from filings that went smoothly, the most appreciated part of our interactions came when I asked how long the eviction would take, and Lesley very hoestly replied 'the end of next summer.' That was her estimate in the fall, and I appreciated the honesty. Shocking, but honest. The tenant left shortly before our court date thank God, because it was about to get expensive in court.

A word about court service here in Middlebury: I firmly beleive that my tenant would not have gotten served court papers except for the fact that I did my own research and found out the tenant worked about 150 yards North of the Sheriff's station on Court St. I send a recent photo of the tenant and told them where to find her, approximately when she would be there and where to locate her at work. It is ludicroud that in VT. only an overburdened Sheriff can serve court papers to a defendant. The workplace is less than 1/2 mile from Deppman. Is it really true that only the Sheriff could serve her?? Coudn't any court appointed officer? If that information is true, then that is a huge flaw in the court process in VT.

In the end we succeeded in getting the tenant out 1.5 years after I first sent a letter to vacate. The process is exhaustively slow here in VT. That is not Deppmann's fault, and perhaps their office is slow to respond because they know that the case will take an inordinate amout of time. I am not sure of their motivations, but I stand by my intial rating of 3-stars.

Lawyers are good writers. I challenge Deppmann to dispute anything in this review. It is all factually accurate and a fair review.

I hate leaving negative reviews - it’s someone’s business, after all. That said…
My realtor highly recommended Deppman, who agreed to do my closing. Little hiccups along the way, probably to be expected. Closing was awful. Three days before closing I talked to him and he was unaware his staff had scheduled closing. Then he forgot I had signed POA for him to represent me. He did not follow thru on basic tasks. For example, he requested a final water/sewer reading from the Town and did not receive one. Instead of following up, he closed…and without escrowing funds or letting me know. When I contacted him after receiving a bill from the Town more than 2 months after selling the property, he said (in writing) ‘we didn’t hear from them the Town), so we went head and closed’. The buyers’ attny didn’t notice state required fire/CO detectors were missing on the walkthru. Deppman noticed, but wanted to close, so didn’t mention it. Later, he refused to accept responsibility, but added (also in writing) ‘mistakes were made’. These were not mistakes. These were either incompetence or greed, since there was no error in him collecting his fees. Stear clear.

I did not have the opportunity to work directly with Benj and the Deepman Law practice, however, I was impressed by their responsiveness and understanding of my situation. I am confident that Benj would have provided excellent support and representation had we worked together.