Our dream turned into a nightmare. The dream: we had just closed on our perfect house. We had a contractor come out to convert the carport into a garage, which required a building permit. The nightmare: the building inspector found that the house had not been completed in accordance with plans originally submitted. Substantial changes would be required, for which we had no additional funds. Doing our own detective work we found that the prior owner’s architect had submitted fraudulent documents. Talking to a lawyer was even more discouraging. “Yes, we had a ‘case” but the cost was overwhelming! Faced with pursuing a claim against the architect or tearing down parts of our home, we elected to represent ourselves in the lawsuit. At first it seemed everything we did was wrong, then we found be Your Own Lawyer. For a fraction of what the attorney had quoted, they helped us prepare all the papers to file and proceed with our lawsuit. With their help we were able to achieve a favorable settlement with the architect and the former owner.

After retiring from my former employer, new management attempted to recalculate my pension amount, lowering it substantially. I quickly realized that I could not afford to hire an attorney, so I was left with two options - roll over and take it, or represent myself. Be Your Own Lawyer helped me through every step of the lawsuit which by the way, I won!

My wife and I, both retired, own our own home and had a mortgage serviced by Nationstar. My mortgage was current and we had been directly paying our taxes and insurance. We received a notice from Nationstar to the effect that our taxes and insurance should have been escrowed. The notified us that our mortgage payment, based on calculations that we really did not understand, would be increased by more than 70%. We were on a fixed income and this was simply not affordable. We talked to several lawyers, but all were simply beyond our reach. Left with no option but to represent ourselves, we found Be Your Own Lawyer. It all worked out! For less than one month’s “new” mortgage payment amount, they prepared a lawsuit for us against Nationstar. They explained how to put the papers together, file them at the courthouse and how to “serve” them. Certainly must have been an attention getter because within a few days of sending the suit papers to Nationstar, the ”misunderstanding” was miraculously cleared up.

After living my entire life without seeing the inside of a courtroom, I was sued. The process server was very nice but the papers he handed me ruined what had promised to be a pleasant day. It seems that my mother, when she had decided to move to an assisted living facility had rented out her former home in Baltimore, which home I had inherited when she passed away. Long story short, it was an old house with lead paint. The lawsuit sought damages for permanent disability to a young man suffering the effects of lead poisoning from numerous defendants, including myself. I consulted an attorney in Baltimore (I live several states away), but there was no way I could afford his demanded retainer of $10,000 on my salary. I knew I needed to answer the lawsuit but had no idea how to do it. Searching the internet I found Be Your Own Lawyer. For much, much less than the attorney had quoted, they prepared all the necessary papers, showed me how to send them to the attorney representing the plaintiff, and I was eventually dismissed from the lawsuit. I cannot recommend Be Your Own Lawyer highly enough! They took the time to explain the whole case to me, and explained what needed to be done and why. All of my emails were responded to quickly – never later than 24 hours. What I found most appealing was that a fee was quoted for any piece of work, and I had the option of approving or disapproving it. They never “nickle and dimed” me for emails, telephone calls, etc. Be You Own Lawyer helped me avoid a potentially ruinous judgment at a fraction of the cost that was quoted by the attorneys I spoke to.