Thursday, June 24, 2010

Singapore Lawyers - Skillful and Sincere

I manage several businesses for a living.

A few of my own but mostly on behalf of a group of angel investors.

Singapore is my home country and I am ever so proud of her but I have suffered my fair share of great misfortunes due to her inefficient law enforcement system.

Sharing My Experiences:

Landlord uses draft of lawyer's letter as a fake Court Order to lock out tenants !

In the year 2009, my landlord (Kelvin Lee Huay Kok, Director of H.K.L. SCAFFOLDING & FORMWORK PTE LTD) and his nephew who acted as the real estate agent (ERA PTE LTD, Marketing Director Mr John Lee Wee Hong) unlawfully evicted my family and I from an Orchard Road condominium. I as the official tenant did not owe any rent.

I got a good deal and locked in a 2 year tenancy at only S$5,000.00 a month in July 2009. Rental rates peaked in September 2009 to S$9,500.00 a month and co-incidentally the landlord chose to evict my family and I in September 2009...

I will elaborate on the above case later because I feel that it is my duty to share with you the importance of engaging a sincere and skillful lawyer in Singapore.

Everything I post on my blog is my truthful opinion on my experiences.

I really wished Richard Yong (NKF) posted and shared his experiences because if he did, I would have never engaged the services of Chia Boon Teck from Chia Wong LLP.

I feel that I suffered so that I can share with you and save you the agony of wasting all your hard-earned money on top of the pain of living the reality of the tragedy that caused you to engage a lawyer.

I will never forget what Chia Boon Teck told my mom and I :

" many a times it is the one with the deeper pockets that win and not the one who is right. "

Can't remember word for word but he told my mother and I that on the same day we handed him a total of S$36,060.00

Chia Boon Teck has in his office a plaque that said:

" Talk is Cheap until you hire a lawyer. "

After my experience at Chia Wong LLP, that plaque was the only useful advice I received...

PS. I googled for a criminal lawyer and read the Client's Feedback on his website. Now that I look back, I was extremely stupid to have trusted feedback which were on Chia Boon Teck's own website! This is the link that burnt my hard-earned monies!!!! *because I stupidly believed it...


Sharing My Bad Experiences: CHIA WONG LLP - Chia Boon Teck

20th October
Engaged Chia Boon Teck to liaise with police (Collected S$2,000.00)

Before collecting the money: Chia Boon Teck explained that this S$2,000.00 is to liaise and that he will send as many letters to the police to get them to do their job. If need be to write to the Commissioner of Police to look into the stolen 20pcs of Gold bars and Diamond Bracelet alt worth over S$100,000.00

After collecting the money: Chia Boon Teck said it is better to wait till later then write to the Police. Chia Boon Teck in the end only sent ONE letter to the police from start to the end and only when I strongly insisted did he write the SECOND letter to the police to inquire on the status of the investigations. *After Chia Boon Teck LOST the case then write 2nd letter to the police!!!If I did not insist for him to do what we paid him for, that means S$2,000.00 for ONE letter!

26th October
Chia Boon Teck read through my case and assured my dad, mom and I that we had a 70% chance of winning the case. After persuasion and trusting his "professional opinion based on his experience " We engaged him to fight for us. (Chia Boon Teck collected another S$10,000.00)

Events:

Chia Boon Teck advised my family that the Tenancy Agreement had a clause which he will use to argue that the case needs to be addressed in the Subordinate Courts instead of in Arbitration. He told us that this is a simple procedure and he doesn't see any difficulty in winning it. Chia Boon Teck LOST.

Chia Boon Teck filed for us to be the Claimant instead of the Respondents. Chia Boon Teck LOST.

Chia Boon Teck filed a summons to claim for the stolen 20pcs of Gold bars and Diamond Bracelet alt worth over S$100,000.00 (Chia Boon Teck sent me an email with negative comments of the Defendant's lawyer Mr Lai Swee Fung from UniLegal LLC. Chia said he won Mr Lai in a previous case not too long ago)

Mr Lai applied to strike out the summons and YES, Chia Boon Teck LOST.

I met Chia on behalf of my mother as I did not want her to be under too much stress. I met him at his SOHO central office 1 day after he lost our case.

I told him my mother is his official client and I cannot make the decision to release him as her lawyer with immediate effect. Chia Boon Teck said it's ok and faxed to the defendant's lawyers that he has been released.

My mother was admitted to SGH ICU ward after suffering from tremendous stress and depression because she trusted Chia Boon Teck's assurance of 70% winning chance and was utterly disappointed. She kept saying that she want him to explain to her how he lost and return her at least half of the legal fees!

He did not explain personally to the Claimant(my mother) how he, Chia Boon Teck lost the case even though we had 70% chances of winning.

At this point of time, we felt so hopeless...

* S$100,000.00 worth of valuables stolen and unaccounted for
* S$36,060.00 in legal fees to Chia Wong LLP, Chia Boon Teck
* S$6,500.00 to be paid to the Defendant's lawyers because Chia Boon Teck LOST.

Chia Boon Teck sent one of his staff down to the SGH ICU ward and got my mom and myself to sign his release papers and hand us a cheque for remaining unused funds and a very small refund after much pleading.

I have met very good and sincere lawyers and hiring Chia Boon Teck is by far the worst experience so far. In my honest opinion, choose wisely and spare yourself the pain I suffered...

Good Experiences with Skillful and Sincere Lawyers:

JUST LAW LLC - Mr Param
JUST LAW LLC - Mr Brij Rai
Regional Law LLC - David Gan (Now Known As DG Law)
Vision Law LLC - Ong Bok Kee
MARY ONG & CO - Mary Ong

*There are 2 more very good lawyers but I can only share them next month. Those I have shared above are all tried and tested and not based on hearsay but first hand experience. I confidently share them with you and pray that they will be able to help you.

Feel free to email me if you have further ques.