Unauthorized Practicing Law

[IncaTiger]

What is the name of your state? Texas

We needed legal advice and was forwarded by a reputable city agency to "legal aid". I say "legal aid" because that is how the place we contacted represented themselves. However, in actuality, they turned out to be a document processing services run by paralegals. When we called we asked for a lawyer. Our family situation was very complex (POA abuse by a sibling) and we definitely needed a lawyer. Instead of referring us to a lawyer the intake para immediately told us what forms we needed to fill out and that they would serve papers on the abusing sibling. He said he could have everything done by the next week which is what we needed. They charged an over the top fee. Due to the emergency of our family situation and considering that they were recommended by a reputable city agency we let our guards down and unfortunately hired them. We slowly discovered over the past three weeks that they were "playing lawyers" but yet kept claiming they were not allowed to give legal advice. Every week when we spoke with them, they would tell us how complex our family situation, suggest other legal avenues to take, which meant filling out more forms and more money of course. Finally we had enough. We found a real lawyer (on our own) and was told that information they filled out for guardianship papers were incorrect, the overpriced POA they provided was useless and we basically got fleeced. We refused to give full payment and they threatened to sue us because they felt they did all the paperwork we "asked for"; provided us a service and they had a signed notarized contract that we would make full payment (non-refundable) upon completion of paperwork. Our atty said we had grounds for a lawsuit but it would be pointless because it would be more troublesome to go through the motions and we wouldn't really gain anything from it. However, the whole thing just stinks! We were in a very vulnerable position and taken advantage of. Who should we report these people to? I would hate for another desperate family to have to go through the same thing.What is the name of your state?