I had hoped to one day forgive Mr. Ellis for his actions but a new event has pushed me to write this. This is an explanation of how horrible a human being he is and how terrible a lawyer he is. I was fourteen years old at the time this took place. On Christmas Day 2014 I spoke to my father for the last time. He passed away from a heart attack two months later while I was with my mother. Mr. Ellis was put in charge of the estate due to some of my fathers debts. He promptly hired a locksmith to put pad-locks onto the doors and kept me or my family from going in. He claimed this was temporary so that inventory could be done and nothing would be stolen and that later I would be allowed to get my things from my home. I waited along with the rest of the family and even helped provide documents that he might need. After being made to wait months without any contact not initiated on my families end I got a call from my grandmother. People had begun emptying out the home by the trailer load. We had been given no warning or notice and had not retrieved any family heirlooms or personal items. Upon driving to his office (he never returned phone calls) he attempted to pass it off as a favor of "getting rid of the trash" as he called it. When I asked about getting just my things I was told that unless I had a receipt they were automatically sold as part of the estate. Being fourteen I had very few receipts and the few I had kept we at my fathers house which I was barred from entering. He then threatened to have me removed from all proceedings if I came and demanded my things again. I was barred from getting even a single thing regardless of where it was from. After that I found out that he had sold everything to a man for 500 dollars a truckload. A collection of Native American artifacts collected across four generations, a woodworking shop, a machine shop, my grandfathers clocks, an antique sign collection, four stand-up sets of machining tools, a landscaping business, wormy chestnut dinning table, hand carved panels belonging to my family and more that will never be recovered. When my mother finally begged him to let us in after five months had passed everything was gone. Mr Ellis sold everything my father owned for a total of less than 2000 dollars. What the people had left behind was destruction. They had destroyed what they couldn't take and even knocked a hole through the wall. They had defected inside the home and dumped trash and a used water heater on the property. I was able to pull 3 photos from my home. Mr Ellis caused more damage to the property than he even got back. He never once even visited the property to see what lay there, only deciding that it would be easier to sell it without any effort. He is a man driven only by greed and laziness. Even the money collected from selling everything went to pay him rather than to the debts of the estate. The estimated value put on the items he sold by an independent third party estimated the value at two and a half times the debt of the estate. Mr. Ellis was able to get one 75th of that, all of which and more when to him. He is a horrible lawyer and an even more awful human being. While I cannot personally talk about those he works with I can say that anyone who says that James Ellis is a good man is lying to themselves or to you. He is a horrible man and I would advise anyone who can to avoid him. If you are unfortunate enough to have him represent the estate of a loved one then do not let him take everything from you. He did all of this to me with a smile and will gladly take advantage of anyone else who he believes can earn him a quick dollar. read more
