Kimball, Tirey & St John LLP

I wish I can give them negative star. All of the bad reviews about this office of Justin Brewer are totally legitimate. This is a very un-​professional office. After they charged the retainer you are pretty much left in the dark. I used them for eviction process and please do not use this company unless you want to be cheated and treated poorly.
Every single step of the eviction process they will not move to the next step until you call and remind them to move forward. If you do not know the law then they will give you wrong information to get excuse for their late. I asked CAA and other eviction lawyer and I had all correct steps and time frame for every single step. and they still tried to lie to me and gave me completed bogus information.
Their staff is really un-​friendly, un-​professional and very arrogant. If you call them after you paid them then expect wait time is not less than ½ hour. They unwilling or unable to give you honest information and they do not want to do their job. Once you get your bill, you need to check every item because they charged you items that they never did the work on.
I called to CAA to remove them from the vendor list, and please run away from this company.
I totally agree with Timothy about this company and I want to emphasize again
Lack of transparency in eviction process– our assigned lawyer did not know and did not provide the timelines for when our tenant was being served
— Poor communications– multiple un-​returned phone calls, multiple emails with no response (some identified by our lawyer as a repeated SPAM filter issue), shuffling from lawyer to lawyer
— Multiple drafts of documents and subsequent charges for documents that were drafted, did not meet the specific need, were not finalized, and were not able to be used
— Untimeliness– the delivery and feedback provided to us by our assigned lawyer was often times too late in the process. This resulted in ineffective communications and a lack of trust in KT&StJ to deliver.

Most often, I use Unilocal, but do not engage in providing feedback or ratings. My experiences with Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP have motivated me to provide feedback related to their eviction services.
Although the service provided by the intake staff was good, they did not identify their role as being separate from that of the lawyers on staff. This became evident when my questions grew in complexity.
My experiences with the assignment of a lawyer (Mr. Justin Brewer– Walnut Creek office) took approximately 2 weeks. Once assigned, the inattentiveness on the part of our assigned lawyer became obvious when we were shuffled from lawyer to lawyer after multiple (more than 3) unreturned phone calls. The timing of communications with the eviction process can play a factor in the effectiveness of each delivery. Timeliness and attention to detail are clearly not the strengths of the lawyer assigned to our case. Any frustrations we had with out tenant paled in comparison to the frustrations brought about by the communications, or lack of clear communications, with our assigned lawyer.
Here are a few key points:
— Lack of transparency in eviction process– our assigned lawyer did not know and did not provide the timelines for when our tenant was being served
— Poor communications– multiple un-​returned phone calls, multiple emails with no response (some identified by our lawyer as a repeated SPAM filter issue), shuffling from lawyer to lawyer
— Multiple drafts of documents and subsequent charges for documents that were drafted, did not meet the specific need, were not finalized, and were not able to be used
— Untimeliness– the delivery and feedback provided to us by our assigned lawyer was often times too late in the process. This resulted in ineffective communications and a lack of trust in KT&StJ to deliver.
Unless you have an established relationship with a lawyer within this practice, or have a solid reference to a lawyer within the practice, DO NOT SEEK OUT Kimball, Tirey & St John for eviction services.

For the record, I have had great experiences with Kimball Tirey in both LA and San Diego. Unfortunately, I had bad luck dealing with Shawn Bankson in Walnut Creek. I called in for advice about landlord/​tenant issues including charging for utilities and discrimination and was forwarded to Shawn. Disappointingly, he said he was ‘guessing’ at some of the answers and contradicted himself a few times. He said ‘that’s not really my specialty’ to several questions, but still gave answers. It really didn’t inspire confidence in his legal opinion. The official written up opinion felt no less ambiguous, and really, I felt it lacked enough of the ‘weight in law’ I was hoping for. Not sure how long Shawn has been practicing, but he gave me the vibe of a new, green attorney. KTS really specializes in landlord/​tenant law and they are usually great in their understanding of nuances of the law and how some of the crazy California laws are actually interpreted and more importantly, enforced in court. Shawn really seemed to lack that real world knowledge. I could have called any general practice attorney to get the same advice I wad given. Hopefully with a few years experience, Shawn will have a better grounding in how California real estate law works in practice. I just wish he would have pulled in other more experienced counsel to help better answer some of my questions.

Future clients beware, they do not know how to resolve their mistakes! I am neither a client nor someone who was served. The firm made a mistake and posted an eviction notice on my door, but I am not the person named on the notice. It was a mistake on their part posting at the wrong address. Thinking I was doing the right thing, I called to let them know that they had made a mistake. Let’s face, all companies make mistakes. It’s how they respond to a mistake that separates the good companies from the bad. This law firm is BAD. They assumed I was in fact the evictee and began to yell at me then hung up on me! I get they have a difficult business, but 30 seconds to sort out that I was just redirecting them so they could fix their mistakes was all time needed.
Side note… I happen to be a landlord. Needless to say, I will NEVER use this firm should I be unfortunate enough to need legal services.