The Background Information

For those of you that don't know, I was in a very serious accident on April 28, 2004, motorcycle vs. Ford Explorer. Let's just say that me and the motorcycle didn't come out on top. After the accident I contacted Liz Borg of McAdory Borg Law Firm and hired her to represent me in a lawsuit against Ellen Ingram, the driver of the Ford Explorer.

The statute of limitations on a lawsuit of this nature is two years. During the months after the accident, I periodiclly contacted Ms. Borg to ensure that the lawsuit was going forward as planned. She reassured me that she knew what the statute of limitations was and that she was still collecting information for the lawsuit, but insisted that she would not let the statute of limitations expire without filling a lawsuit.

Then, in early February, I called Ms. Borg to make sure that all was still going as planned. She proceeded to inform me that she was not going to file a lawsuit against Ellen Ingram due to a lack of evidence and supporting witness statements. I was completely shocked by this 180 degree turn around from her position for the past 20 months.

This left me without a lawyer and with a lawsuit that was only two months from its statute of limitation and a twenty month old accident. I quickly began to contact as many lawyers in the Auburn / Opelika area. Due to the fact that I live in North Carolina, I found it extremely hard to even get a hold of a lawyer, let alone get one to consider the case. This left me with basiclly one course of action.

Filing a Complaint Against a Lawyer

I decided that my only recourse was to contact the Alabama State Bar and file a complaint against Ms. Borg for breaking numerous Rules of Professional Conduct. In the Alabama State Bar's Complaints Against Alabama Lawyers(pdf), they ask that an attempt be made to reach a resolution with the lawyer. So I wrote a letter to Ms. Borg, notifying her that I was considering filing a complaint against her and asked that she respond in writing.

Of course, she failed to even follow my simple request that her response be made in writing. Instead, she called me and began telling me how ungrateful of a person I was for not appreciating the time and money her firm had spent to try and help build a case for me. She told me that they had spent hundreds of dollars to purchase my medical records and had to hire a private investigator to locate the witness to the accident who had moved away from the area.

I found these statements to be in stark contrast to the fact that I had ordered a complete copy of all medical records for around $14 and had been told by one of Ms. Borg's assistants that the witness was a frat brother of his, so keeping in touch with him had been easy.

The phone call continued with her repeatedly telling me that I didn't understand this or that and that I should be more appreciative of her firms work. She never really addressed the issues I put forward in my letter to her. The phone call ended with her telling me that "talking to you [me] is like talking to a brick wall" and then she hung up.

Two days later I received a letter from her (large image). She began by saying that after she had reviewed the case, she did not believe she would take it. This of course was not an option to her since she had signed a contract for employment (large image) on May 4, 2004 and was only allowed 60 days within which she could decline to handle the case. Her letter follows the same general idea as her phone call and doesn't really address my initial letter to her.

Since I had attempted to resolve our differences and Ms. Borg refused to work with me to resolve the problems, I decided to proceed with my complaint and filled out Alabama State Bar's Complaint Against a Lawyer (pdf). With the letter I sent my extended complaint letter (doc). I also attached a copy of the contract for employment and a demand letter that Ms. Borg sent to Ellen Ingram, stating that she had been found at fault for the wreck.

In my complaint I purposely left out specifics about the case in order to keep the complaint independent of the plausibility of the case. The complaint used a basic format in the letter where I wrote and introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. This way it would be easy for the Alabama State Bar to follow the complaint and even easier for Ms. Borg to respond.

About a week later I received a letter from the Alabama State Bar which included Ms. Borg's response to my complaint (large image). Of course, as she had previously shown, she was incapable of actually defending her unprofessional actions and resorted to pointing out how her business had spent time and money to try and build a case. She also resorts to quoting single words from my complaint and actually going to the extent of creating quotes. She also tries to use what she believes wasn't a good case as a defense for her actions. She fails to even address one of the three key rules that I had stated that she had broken and uses only two paragraphs of a four page letter to respond to my three key points.

So, of course, I proceeded to use this opportunity to rip her response to pieces and wrote another letter to the Bar (doc). Since Ms. Borg decided to try and muddy my complaint by including facts from the actual lawsuit, which I believed to be confidential, I response included more emotion from me about the wreck.

People I Would Like to Thank

Dr.Win Lyle, M.D., of The Hughston Clinic, was the doctor that worked on my leg after the wreck. He did an amazing job of reconstructing my knee. I honestly believe that without his great skills, I would possibly not have my leg or not be able to walk.

Anyone that has leaved in Auburn has heard the horror stories about East Alabama Medical Center. I would have to say that I am living proof that their medical services are up to par.

I must also give thanks to Jerry over at Alabama Sports Medicine office. Jerry and the others at ASM helped me get back on my feet as quickly as possible and helped me through the long recovery stage.

Things About This Whole Situation That I Find Peculiar

Ellen Ingram works for the Lee County Youth Development Center, which has extremely close ties with the Lee County Court system and the Opelika Police Department.

Ms. Borg, previously a judge in Lee County, advises me not to contact the police department to notify them that Ellen Ingram lied about having automotive insurance at the time of the wreck. Ms. Borg told me that it was a childish idea and would be laughed at by the police department.

Ellen Ingram failed call 911 after the wreck, she failed to even exit her vehicle even though her SUV had been only slightly damaged, and she couldn't even take the time to end her call with her boyfriend, staying on the phone until I was loading into the ambulance.

James Moody (Officer ID 200304), the responding officer, stated on the police report that I had been speeding, even though there was absolutely no way for him to determine this since he had not witnessed the accident and my motorcycle had left no skid marks. As a defense, I must add that I have never had a speeding ticket reported to my insurance company and I know I was not speeding seeing as how I was actually going slower than the speed limit because Ms. Ingram's SUV was slowing down and pulling off the side of the road, therefore I was slowing down.

James Moody (Officer ID 200304) also drew the diagram of the accident scene completely wrong. In the statement by the only witness that made a statement, the witness makes it extremely clear that Ms. Ingram's SUV was well past the road in which she was trying to turn on to and that if she had continued forward, she would have struck the community sign. This is not was J. Moody drew on the police report in which he shows her vehicle attempting to make a clear turn into the community.

The only statement the police took from me was me telling the police officer that I believed that Ms. Ingram did not have rear lights on her vehicle. I asked him specificlly to go and check them. The police officer never came to the hospital to get a statement and only tried to get my statement as I was being loaded into the ambulance.

Ms. Ingram clearly lied to the police officer during his investigation of the accident. She told them that she had insurance, when in fact she had not had insurance in months.

Ms. Borg's main reason for not taking the case to court was the fact that her firm had researched Ms. Ingram and found that she had nothing to take. I of course had never researched Ms. Ingram until Ms. Borg told me this. During my research I found that Ms. Ingram is actually the Director of Transition Services. I have never met a Director that didn't have money.

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