I am a very traditional Chinese who like some other cultures (Jews for instance) respect their own words and make contracts once the words are out of their mouth. But I discovered this is not the world I was going through in the following years! Many people are dishonest, and selfish. Based on my values, I was naïve, I trusted these lawyers and all of this caused me more and more suffering until recently.
This lesson has taught me that there is no justice no matter how. Only money counts, And if the amount is significant, greed could push my own lawyer to become my worst enemy!
For nearly ten years, I never had a chance to meet a good lawyer, so it led me to lose everything I owned. It has put me in an unending nightmare. That is the reason why I have been unable to work because I cannot accept that injustice that fell upon my family and myself.
Below are descriptions of the events that happened with each of these lawyers. After reading those descriptions you will understand why I lost trust and hope gradually. My personal life went into a “deep shit” because of these people, and they just walked away without any consequences for their misbehaviour.

Enza Martucelli—Dec. 2, 1995 to …This was the first lawyer I ever used in my life, and this encounter brought my life into a nightmare up until today…

She was sent by the YWCA and she was working at their legal clinic from time to time. I later learned that she had been disbarred since 1994 and also had a criminal record since 1991.

So she became a legal and family supporter when my late wife was in Montreal General Hospital Intensive Care Unit, fighting for her life following a terrible accident.

She defrauded me of $20,000.00 and also tried to get involved with my restaurant business. When the MUC Police removed her from my restaurant Sawatdee, I did a favor to help the Police protect the public by letting them use my evidences against my former lawyer Enza Martucelli.

Even though I brought some evidences to the MUC Police, Enza threatened me, the MUC Police detective and the Crown Prosecutor. She also called different government agencies to put me in trouble and managed to send mafia to my restaurant.

She successfully convinced my former employee Qingrui He to cooperate with her. Together, they registered a personal company using my restaurant’s name and address, then within three weeks, they stole $35,000 worth of sales from my restaurant until I discovered it.

Under a MUC Police investigation, they tried to walk away from criminal charges, without any proof. They both of them went the Superior Court and launched a lawsuit against me asking for $400,000 damages, claiming they owned an equal share in my company Maison Chuan Yang Inc

The MUC Police told me that the evidence against them sounded good, and I should not worry since they will take care of this. But in fact it didn’t turn out the way they had predicted: the “criminals” successfully took advantage of the legal and justice system, they illegally operated my restaurant business without any punishment.

After that, the MUC Police and the Crown prosecutor didn’t want to be involved anymore with my case. So I tried to get some support from government agencies and medias. Finally Hour Magazine came to visit me in Jewish General Hospital where I was hospitalized, and published my story. The article that mentioned if the MUC Police wanted to arrest Enza Martucelli, they may find her in Sawatdee Restaurant because she was facing a court arrest order since 1997! But no one wanted to do anything to stop them. Then in June 1998, the MUC Police detective informed me that I should go to a criminal court as a witness since they went to close the case where she was involved (1997).

At the criminal court, the MUC Police and the Crown Prosecutor just wanted to close the case, claiming they shouldn’t waste citizens’ money on such a case. Instead of using my evidence, they used surround evidence of a $1,480 brought to the judge. Enza Martucelli pleaded guilty, so the judge wanted to settle my case and asked her what she wanted to do before he granted a sentence. So she convinced the judge that she would rather settle with me at a civil court instead of a criminal court. I was not called to testify!

Gilles Poulin & Anik Poulin—Jan. 1996 to Oct. 2003 Gilles Poulin was the former boss of Enza Martucelli, Enza bought me to him and convinced me that if I was lucky he would accept my case to against Le Buffet Heberge, which was the party responsible for my late wife tragic accident.

I paid a $2,000 advance to let him start the case. He told me his fees vary from 20 to 30%. The advanced deposit will be refunded when the case is won. I told him with a split of 25% for him and 75% for myself, I wished he would do better with my case!

When I got troubles with Enza Martucelli, the judge appointed him with the case she invented since Enza claimed to the judge that Gilles Poulin was my attorney. But he never mentioned to me that Enza Martucelli was no longer a lawyer because she had a criminal record. Instead, he put pressure on me, made me sign the contract otherwise he would not show up at the court, if he were so requested by the judge.

In the contract, his fees became suddenly 25% compensation plus tax. Also the court costs recovery belonged to him if he successfully got them back from the defendant. He promised that he would find a way to settle the tax parts once the case had been settled and that I shouldn’t worry about all this!

However the result is this: he took another $2,000 from me, which just made me to pay $100 to the lawyer that I suppose I don’t have to, return the computer and two shipping boxes to Enza Martucelli and Qingrui He, but he even never spoke to the judge about the facts!

He even never got back to me any single document hold by Enza as he had previously promised. Instead, he asked me to pay him another $5,000 right away in order to represent me in the case against me. Otherwise he would withdraw from representations. Given that I just got another fraud and I had lost $35,000 of sales, I requested him if he would let me pay him later since I had already given him an important case. But he refused.

With my late wife case, he refused to sue the doctor and the hospital for their negligence and disrespect for basic human rights. He never registered the case until 1998 (4 years of interests lost in a claim from compensation!), and he also never helped me analyze the right amount I should have asked.

Gilles Poulin never actively searched the evidence. I was the one who would initiate to provide all the strong proofs to support my case: like the document of my factory joint-venture Jiaxing Lailin Perfume Co. LTD. in China; like my Federal & Provincial Government half million undeclared income claim, also my psychiatry doctor medical report, my personal bankruptcy papers etc.

Instead, he asked me if I would accept a $30,000 settlement, then $80,000, and $150,000 till $200,000. When I refused, he convinced my eldest daughter because now she had turned 18 and she could make a decision on her own. He always tried to convinced us to settle for less otherwise we’d have to deposit another amount of $7,000 in order to start the legal procedure. He used all kind of excuses to avoid my questions about the unreasonable delay to proceed with this case.

In August 2003, having no other options, we agreed to meet with a mediator. I had no more money to pay him, but at the same time, before even discussing the settlement, he never told me what amount I should take and just asked us how much we wanted to put in our pocket. He also convinced us that we should reduce our total claim of about 30-40 %...because this is the settlement…

I brought all the facts to persuade the mediator that a 75% compensation for the settlement was a low amount for us according to the situation we are dealing with. The mediator disagreed to let us claim 4 years of interests and he told Anik as she is our attorney she should take care of that. I told Anik that since I have had so many legal problems to deal with, I gave up my claim for interests and choose the possibility of getting more legal services to help me out. We made a deal.

But when the compensation got to Gilles and Anik Poulin , they went beyond 25% from the compensation and added an extra $6,000 legal costs, which were previously included within their agreed 25%. They also added the tax on it which he agreed will find a way to settle. Furthermore, they refused to provide any legal services to me to cover the interests, and they refused to return a $2,000 deposit which they should have me refunded.

Of course I disagreed. Then they hold us we had become hostages… Up to today, they did not answered yet about my request for a detailed legal costs and services invoice with his signature of official receipt!

Stephen Angers—Feb. 2, 1996 to May 14, 1996
Stephen replaced Gilles Poulin and had been introduced by my former social worker to straight out with all the trouble Enza Martucelli had cost me with her $6,000 legal fees. I worried that $6,000 might not suffice to cover his costs and fees. I mentioned to him how many jobs he had to do about my restaurant insurance company.

He told me since I have a good lawyer, I should let my worries upon his shoulders and I should stay home and rest. The result with his job was that I agreed to add another $2,000 for his services and he promised me he would prepare a contract for me to sign, which was never prepared.

Stephen never proceeded the case against Enza & He, and he even never appealed to the court for the case against me on Feb 6th 1996; he also let the criminals seized my restaurant, Sawatdee, my personal savings including my RRSP and my eldest daughter’s savings account. My bank manager Madam Tina luckily protected my eldest daughter since I had dealt with this bank for many years and she knew the situation we involved in.

Furthermore, he referred my former employees to the Quebec Labor Department for lost salaries because of the fraud. Luckily only one employee reported to that Department and the others refused to do so because they knew that I never had acted towards them as a boss. Moreover, without my knowledge, he withdrew the complaints I had previously made with MUC Police. I just learned about this last year from a chief crown prosecutor.

On the other hand, Stephen squeezed more money from me and as much as possible: I paid him a $3,000 advance from the very beginning and although all my savings were seized, I still let him took $10,000 out of my import cost of silk cloth merchandise to secure the work he would provide for me. But once he saw I was holding $100,000 of merchandise, instead of trying to solve my legal problems, he introduced himself to my merchant agent and claimed he would help me to get some cash money for living since he had a lot of connections.

The results with his work were that once I had disagreed to let him sell my merchandise less one dollar a piece, by then, he never proceeded the case against the criminals at both court—civil & criminal as he had previously promised to do so. Even his employee, Me France St-Denis, also wondered why he had never done anything with my case.

Late on, I was shocked to learn from the chief Cown Prosecutor that Stephen Angers withdrawal my complaint for fraud filed with MUC Police!

Bernard Pagér—Sep. 2000 to …
He was referred to me by the Barreau with legal aid mandate to represent me with Stephen’s claim made to the bar in 1998. Since he already knew about my case, on September 2000, I signed a contract to let him proceed against Qingrui He and related parties based upon a percentage.

He asked for an advanced deposit amount of $2,000 with a 15% included tax to share from the compensation. I added 25% and I was hopping he would do a better job because my restaurant Sawatdee was still operating under the “the criminals”. Then, when I paid him the advance deposit…. he left right away for….. vacation.

By the middle of September 2000, I found my restaurant closed and I contacted with him right away. Bernard told me that I shouldn’t worry because I was the only guardian for the restaurant, and he mentioned since he was my lawyer; I should trust what he was doing although I had already experienced too many bad things with past lawyers.

A year passed. I had already provided an assessment of my restaurant’s assets (especially, the high value of my Thai antiques and decorations-it no more exists in the international market since year 2000—and this is supported proved by the Thai embassy in Canada). While he was my attorney, one and half years passed and Bernard had never started anything yet and he just brought me a piece of paper, which proved he had just left $2,000 cash in the bank account even though I’d pushed him.

He claimed that since he singed contract with me, he didn’t work for a few months cause of an illness, which left my case forgotten. He promised me that he would work harder to process my case to make sure that I would get my lost recovered with compensation.

He also told me that it was very easy for him to proceed with my case because the “criminals” had given up claiming ownership of my restaurant’s assets. He would then bring this case to the criminal court in order to prove that I was the only one legally and truly owning the MCY Inc. company and Sawatdee Restaurant.

The net outcome of his work is that ”the criminals” successfully ran my restaurant business for three years, and then hid away my assets, even successfully got compensation from my landlord for moving out my restaurant from the premises of 457 St-Pierre. Bernard also refused to claim back the compensation that supposedly belonged to me.

After a harsh exchange of words, Bernard started to avoid me again, and finally disappeared: he closed his office at Mont-Royal Blvd., never answered the e-mails, faxes or even registered letters I had sent him. He also never returned my calls. Finally, he sent me an e-mail message and proposed me to let him to sign an agreement with “the criminals” that would just get back the assets for whatever was left for me without any further claim. I refused his proposition and thereafter he never responded again until I requested the Barreau to force him to return back my documents, some of which had already disappeared.
PS: Finally, I convinced the Superior Court to allow me for a personal appearance in order to clarify the situation about my company and my restaurant with this nonsense lawsuit invented by the criminals. I requested the court to hear these three cases against my company and me with the same judge at the same time because these three cases are related to one another.
On February 28th 2003, Enza and He both didn’t show up at the court once more like before. Enza faced court arrest order again since 1999, but she was never arrested although she lived at the same location till 200. He suddenly moved out from his apartment at St Dominique on Dec. 2002, and used his wife’s name to operate a dépanneur business somewhere in the Montreal area. The only people that showed up at the courtroom were the lawyers who were represented He and my landlord.
The judge gave me two hours to present the facts and he later told me he understood why I got screwed up completely with these people. It was also the first time the Superior Court had a chance to learn the facts although I had had these lawyers represent me for all those years. He mentioned to me that I should try to find a legal professional to organize my documents and procedure, to find out where were their present living addresses, where were hidden my assets, and to find out where were their assets placed before getting back to him in order to allow me compensation.
The judge suggested me to go back to MUC Police and Crown Prosecutor since he believed they should help me. The MUC chief Police just sent me a piece of paper with a promise that they already had an investigator on this case, but then no further response had happened in 1998. The Crown Prosecutor told me that they were also not happy with this case, and he would have a second look at it to see if they could do something. No response came once more.
The Chief Crown Prosecutor promised that he would take care of this case seriously, and the specialist chief crown prosecutor told to me that she believed I was a good citizen who did his best to help them protect the public, which was not good enough for me because after the meeting, no further action happened. They told our Chinese community leaders that because they didn’t have enough evidence (although they never used my evidence, which RCMP studied my file after they believe MUC Police didn’t do their job) and they couldn’t do anything to help me.
Processing my complaint, the MUC Police blamed the Crown Prosecutor department, and the Crown Prosecutor department pretended they would do something with this case and told me I didn’t have to contact the MUC Police because the chief Crown Prosecutor himself directly took care of this matter. But up to now, both of the “criminals” have never been punished…

 

Annette Lefebvre—Oct. 1998 to Mar. 2002
In 1998, I found Annette who really wanted to help me get out from the trouble, and she agreed to become my attorney to represent the case against the doctor and the hospital, which were responsible for the death of my late wife on Dec. 5th 1995. She told me that since I already got more than enough trouble she wouldn’t ask any pennies from me, that she won’t cost me more headaches.
With a 30% charge in compensation for the legal fees with no any advance deposit, she did not bother me and simply told me that because of the medical complex, this case might take a long time and that I should not maintain any high hope for the moment. I also never received any legal document from her and I don’t know anything like how much she was asking and which steps she was going to use.
I believed her because she was the only lawyer that tried to listen to what I was saying even if she didn’t follow my points to proceed with this case. A big argument was lost: without my permission and knowingly put an order to let my wife die. I still believed she would try her best to win this case, but I never realized that she was just trying to convince me to switch the case to her for the accident claim, which she knew I already had given away the case before I met her.
She told me that she might give up the case with the hospital but she was pretty sure she would claim more for the accident case, if I let her withdraw her name out with the hospital. I was not happy with Gilles Poulin since he was not really doing his job, but I also didn’t like the way Annette behaved with me.
Mar. 2002, Annette withdrew her name from the case because I disagreed to transfer the accident case to her. Annette never wanted to return back my documents unless I agreed to sign a paper accepting to pay off her legal costs when I win compensation from other cases. This stopped only when the Barreau put a pressure.

Ménard Martin—June 2002… Jan. 2003
Ménard Martin was referred to me by the Legal Aid with a legal aid mandate for consultation regarding different legal problems I dealing with especially w the cases against the doctors and the hospitals: one is related with the Montreal General Hospital and another one is with the Jewish General Hospital Mental Institution involving myself.
Ménard waited more than half a year, then we got a first meeting. He simply prepared two contracts with 20% of the compensation legal fees (one was against Montreal General Hospital and another one was for the accident case). He convinced me to let him represent both cases since they’re related to one another. I refused to do so because it was impossible for me to just let Gilles Poulin keep $2,000 for my advanced deposit and transfer the case to Ménard.
Ménard didn’t provide any consultation for my other legal problems. Since he didn’t get the accident case, he refused to represent both cases related with Montreal and Jewish hospitals; moreover, he convinced my eldest daughter to sign a document with him to drop her part against the doctor and Montreal General Hospital.
It made me look very bad with the case especially I didn’t have enough time to look for another attorney to represent the case. With the pressure from the attorneys from the doctor and the hospital, I failed with personal appearance since I didn’t know the legal procedures…
PS: Although I successfully put back the case on Oct. 2003, but I didn’t know how to do next because these legal tricks could kick my case out any time especially I had no more money to afford another attorney.

 

Michael Polak—Aug. 2000 …
Someone introduced me to Michael Polak. I went to his office, and he told me that he and his family had been regular customers to my restaurant and they liked my cuisine very much. Since I lost Sawatdee, he had never been able to find a restaurant like mine.
Michael led me to believe he was the one who would truly support me to reopen my restaurant business, and I would build up a new life if I let his teamwork with me. I appreciated his offer especially when he told me I didn’t have to worry about money although I already went into a personal bankruptcy.
I made a deal with a friend of mine who is a famous artist and 83 years old! I took two of her traditional Chinese drawing pictures (market value: $20,000 CDN) and sent them to him as a gift to show my appreciation, but we never worked anything since his whole term just wanted to make extra money from me even they knew I didn’t own much because I was on welfare.
Following his idea, I let my daughter form an incorporated company, and then I found a location at 5193 Blvd. Decarie. I provided all the details for him, and I just asked him to help me find out who was the real owner for the building since I wanted to negotiate a new lease.
Michael took $300 cash from me and he explained to me since I started to do business, he had to charge his fees (I never got bank loan from his team to restart for the business instead I had to borrow money from my eldest daughter).
Michael just sent two e-mails to me without any information when I was in Thailand, and simply told me when I came back from Thailand to come to see him. On the other hand, he just forwarded two pieces of paper to my daughter from the real estate agent about the building, and then he sent a few legal service bills to my daughter, even though she had never spoken to him.
When I came back from Thailand, he even didn’t want to help me on anything, so I went to notary Joseph Silverstone.

France Decarie—Sep. 2000 …
France Decarie belonged to Michael’s team. He had told me that she was a lawyer specialized in immigration. France took $200 for advance fee to process my girlfriend’s immigration to Canada from Thailand, and she told me that approximately $800 would cover her legal charges.
But when I was in Thailand, the Visa section in Bangkok told me rather directly to apply as immigrant instead of applying for a visit visa because we were already legally married in Thailand during my trip. They also told me that from the day I submitted the application for a visa, it would take less than six months and our baby would then be delivered in Canada because Thailand is one of the 10 selected countries with a special Kit.
I sent e-mail and called France to ask her if I could submit at Bangkok right away since I already had an application form? France told me not to do anything because the form I had was from year 2000, and she would receive a new form within two weeks. Immigration Canada had just changed its immigration law, she mentioned and with my complex situation, it was better to let a lawyer submit the form.
When I returned back from Thailand, France never showed me the form, and she just listed some questions and wanted me to bring it to my social worker. My social worker was confused and said these whole things should be left to the care of my lawyer and he didn’t understand why France wanted him to do these tasks belonging to the legal field. So he advised me to bring these questions to Project Genesis.
I luckily had a chance to meet the community lawyer from Project Genesis, and he told me that for sponsoring my wife, I didn’t need a lawyer and I could do it by myself because this was pretty simple. If I didn’t know how to do, he would help me to check if I did follow the process. With the same form I submitted, which France claimed to be no longer in use, my wife got her visa within a five months period!
France just wanted to make more money from me without any concern for my interests. So because of her wrong information and unprofessional behaviour, I had to travel a second time to Thailand immediately plus extra medical and other costs (as new baby passport, travel document and airline ticket etc.)Plus the airline refused to let my wife take an airplane because of an 8 months pregnancy.
Although France didn’t do anything useful to process my wife’s immigration act, I however received her legal service bill of $400 even though she had already gotten $200 for an advance deposit.

Robert Emond—Oct. 2000 …
Robert is another lawyer from Michael’s team. He was the lawyer who was supposed to replace my former Chinese lawyer against the Chinese local government regarding my $100,000 CDN investment fraud with my factory Jiaxing Lailin Perfume Co. Limited.. My eldest sister with my Chinese lawyer in China failed with each levels of legal and complaint system in Mainland China although they got the evidence about a crime technology identification report from the Chinese provincial Police.
Robert told me he totally understood my situation because of weak legal system in China, which caused law and justice in China is to be not well protected. He told me that he had a lot of connections with politicians at the Federal level and manages billions of dollars of Canadian investment. His firm directly formed the project in China for our Canadian investors. He knew how to handle my case for the investment fraud with Lailin.
With a contract of $1,000 US advanced deposit and 10% of compensation for his fees, once I had sent to him the advanced deposit, half a year had passed and he had not done anything yet. So I asked him what was the outcome of his lunch meeting with our Prime Minister Jean Chretien in Shanghai. He had promised that he would bring my case to get intention for the politicians, and how about the billions dollars of Canadian investment since he promised that he would hold these investments to put some pressure on the Chinese local government till my case get settled.
Robert never replied to my letter until I requested him to provide a proof of what he had done and which step he took with my case according to our agreement. Robert claimed that he had already tried, but nothing worked out, and he tried to convince me to clarify from the factory for whatever they want to give back to me.
I told him that this was what the Chinese local government want to do, and that was the reason why I had hired him to replace the Chinese lawyer hired before. By then, Robert tried to avoid me and even refused to receive the registered letter I sent him.
When I went to Shanghai in 2002, he had closed his office and had disappeared from Shanghai.

Gian Michele Cerundolo—Aug. 2001 …
When the Bank promised they would provide a new lease for us because I had made a complaint to its Ombudsman, someone introduced Gian to me to help me fix the lease I had prepared, and to represent Sunny Investment and Opium Thai Cuisine settle with the bank and Canton Inn for the compensation.
Gian told me that for about $500 he would be able to cover his costs. I paid him a $200 advance, and he asked me to leave all the copy of evidences and documents to him. I mentioned to him that I had already settled with Canton Inn since its lawyer had told Canton Inn to give up, which I believed supposed our claim for damages from the bank because the bank had locked out both of us .
Gian didn’t listen to me, and he disagreed to claim the damages from the bank, and instead threatened Canton Inn’s lawyer to pay zero dollars. We had both already agreed to a $10,000 final payment to Canton Inn. When Canton Inn’s lawyer refused his argument, he didn’t want to deal with the bank, and he claimed that the bank should prepare a lease, not him.

Jacob L. Rothman—March 2003 …
Jacob L. Rothman was introduced by Me Frank who was appointed by Legal Aid to help me analyzing my legal injustice difficulties. Me Frank advice that I should claim from Quebec Bar insurance for some lawyers who negligently with my legal issues; since Mr. Frank his firm is representing for Bank of Montreal, and he recommended Rothman to represent a case to against Bank of Montreal for my damages.
It will be continue soon.
 

About Barreau du Québec
As mentioned earlier, Me Frank (introduced by Legal Aid with Legal Aid mandate for consultation) sent me back to Barreau du Quebec and he believed that some lawyers should be held responsible for my damage and suffering. the Barreau is supposed to take care because a lawyer who is practicing law must have an insurance to cover. This is another nightmare because this system does not really protect the clients. In most of the cases, the Barreau just stands on the lawyers’ side and tries to find all kind of reasons to cover up for them!
I agree there are some fair lawyers, and I still believe that, but they’re very hard to find! My 10 years of life experience has proven otherwise. If this had been so widespread, my life would not be worse to the point it has become today.
I publish this to let people realize what kind system we live in. I also hope through my story that people might find a better way to avoid the major suffering what I have dealt with, in order to live a life of quality, the kind of life most of the citizens live!

个人不幸经历参考: SUMMARY OF BEING A VICTIM OF CRIME AND IMJUSTICE
http://www.sinoquebec.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=336895

探讨－如何尽可能的避免掉入不良律师的陷阱？
http://www.sinomontreal.ca/bbs/showthread.php?t=376607
 

yanne Registered User   Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Longueuil Posts: 216

有同感 我没有时间很好地看完，也没有这方面太多的体会，但是就凭我个人与律师打交道的那一点点经验，我已经深切的明白，如果有一天，你的生活中有重大事件要依赖律师的话你就完了。在堂堂正正的法制社会中，不知道你知不知道，存在着不少专业偷儿。

 

diorlancome Registered User   Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 7

we support and encourage u to continue your battle of justice redressement. i've read your story at least three or four times, at different places and in different times. i'm so touched by your story, and i'm so shocked to learn the 'true face' of this country's seemingly faire system of justice, and, most importantly, i despise these blood-sucking lawyers. finally, i'm really relaxed to find u are so strong that u become to help people in need with your extraordinary experience and your hard earned legal knowledge. your words are appreciated in this site through your acts, and you are the model of our chinese immigrants. there are always some chinese people who only care about their own backyard, and divert people's attention by self-praising and devauling others in this way or other way, like two guys in this column. don't speak to them, for they are not deserved. i despise these people, means and lacking understanding and fraternity..... justice must be done. i don't care in this earthly world or in the heaven. thanks u for telling us your personal story, and feel sorry for...

 

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