Reviews

I started my first meeting with Attorney Juanita Guillen on 06/14/2022, I specifically told her that my main purpose is to take my rental property back from the tenants who has not pay rent since Oct, 2021 and also broken multiple items in the lease and also caused city violation items due to their misbehavior. We both agreed that we need to get the property back asap so we can sell it and also will go at-fault eviction and not go non-fault eviction. (A couple of people were in that meeting, including my house agents). After the meeting, I signed the contract with them on the same day. Also by request, I sent her all the related documents for my previous UD case and paid the $2350 that day. 2 weeks later on 07/01/2022, I got a new bill $557.40. So I paid it and at the same time, queried the attorney why we had not started our UD cases yet at that stage after I spent almost $3000. I got the feedback that we are waiting for tenants to make a mistake and deny our entry so we can file UD or else we have to wait till Oct to file a NON-Fault eviction. I pointed out at that time that NON-fault eviction is not one of the options we initially had in our conversation since the tenants have many faults already. And on 07/08/2022, I got another $2000 bill for a trust request. So I sent the attorney another email to require the reason why we cannot start an UD case based on the current situation. Based on our back and forth email conversation, we both agreed to fix the city violation code first(most of the items caused by tenants, like trashs were around the property everywhere). So I sent the tenants entry notice to fix the city violation code. But on 07/20, we suddenly received the tenants email, saying that by the requests of our attorney, they gave us the list of their inhabitability issues to ask us to fix. I was in a shock since we never got noticed or discussed with our attorney for this info. So I sent out another email to ask for an explanation and also mentioned we don’t prefer to pay for any service we never get noticed or never agreed with. Then we got the email back from our attorney that she will terminate our attorney-client agreement. Later on, I got another bill for $1194.75 which also includes multiple charges for all the above actions the Attorney did without our agreement. They also double charged me for some items, like sending me an email(charge once) and then leaving me a message to check my email for 1.37 minutes and then charge me for 10 minutes even though we had an agreement earlier that we should use email not VM. The attorney also charged me 5 unapproved emails to send to the tenants' attorney but when I requested those emails, they were only able to supply 4 emails to me. I questioned the attorney for the legibility to send these emails without noticing me or getting the agreement from me. But Attorney Juanita insisted that they did nothing wrong in her last email. My complaint is that the attorney Juanita quit to be my attorney after billing me $4102.55($2907.8 has been paid) and did not make any progress on our UD case. Also she did something without noticing me or getting my approval which has messed up our plan and also charged me for what she did wrong for a couple of hundred dollars and insisted that she did nothing wrong. She also double charged me by sending email also VM for the same things, or charged more items and could not supply enough evidence for what they charged.

I hired Juanita when my property manager invalidated the 60 day notice given to the tenants by extending the move out date without a signed agreement. I called two other attorneys who not only insulted me but scared me to believe I would have to pay the tenants to move out. When I called Juanita, she was calm, took the time to confirm my property was AB 1482 exempt, and provided me with a recommended course of action for a timely move out by the tenants without having to pay the tenants. Juanita always responded promptly to my many questions. I am thankful Juanita took on my case as there are not many attorneys who would represent landlords.

Juanita helped me resolve an issue with my landlord/complex. She was straightforward and responded quickly, getting me a positive outcome.

I had landlord-tenant issues and left a message at her office in Nov 2020. She never returned my call.

Juana Guillen Mellmen along with her husband Stuart Mellmen work for the law firm Mellmen. This couple of lawyers are both highly unprofessional to both OPPOSING parties and OPPOSING attorneys. Stuart & Juanita accuse OPPOSING parties of very serious things such as an ongoing homicide case with a missing shooter, without having any evidence to back up their accusations. How unprofessional and disrespectful of a “lawyer” they could get into serious trouble for this. Overall, I want to let everyone know that is looking for a landlord/ tenant attorney this law firm is a 0 overall. I will also be filing a complaint with the California Bar of Attorneys.

I had a very weird and annoying case and frankly I was just in no mood to put up with some of the back and forth hat so many lawyers make you go through just to talk you BUT this was NOT how Ms. Guillen acted toward me. She answered the call and right away skipped all of the dumb verbiage and went straight into listening and actually trying to help me rather than just thinking about herself like most lawyers do. I explained to her my situation and she gave me so much valuable advice that I literally had no more questions after that and felt so satisfied even though my case was really weird and ridiculous to say the least! I am so happy that I called her and that I found her in general. She was so honest throughout the whole conversation and her intention was actually to help and not just to make a quick buck from you which is extremely RARE these days, specially in her field! Thank you very much and you truly helped me and gave me a happy week this week! God bless you!

Was served with unlawful detainer for the apartment I was living in after months of dealing with an awful property management company. After I retained Juanita, she quickly negotiated a settlement (just had to pay for the extra month I stayed) and had eviction lawsuit dismissed. I would highly recommend retaining this highly experienced law firm!

My apartment came under new ownership, and I was presented with a lot of paper work to sign as well as a rent increase. Ms. Guillen was very helpful explaining the language in the paper work what it meant to me as a tenant, and what my rights were concerning my new land lord, my new lease and my increase in rent. This gave me such peace of mind knowing my rights and that I was not being taken advantage of as a tenant. Juanita was excellent in translating all of complex language of leases and agreements into layman's terms for me. I highly recommend Ms. Guillen to anyone that needs help with tenant issues.

Mrs. Guillen is professional, attentive, extremely helpful, and has a wealth of expertise in her field. I truly felt confident with the information and services I was provided with. I highly recommend Mrs. Guillen for any services you may need.

Attorney Guillen is a very knowledgeable and capable attorney. I sought her out regarding questions about tenant rights. She was quick to respond to my questions about my specific rights and provided guidance about which steps to take. Attorney Guillen is clearly very passionate about her work and cares about each individual client and getting the best outcome. I highly recommend her!

Ms. Guillen was instrumental in ensuring my mother knew her rights when she received an unlawful detainer. She made sure to explain the process and was proactive in her approach. In doing so, my mother's rights were protected. Ms. Guillen is methodical, very knowledgeable and kind. I highly recommend her services.

Very detailed work, super knowledgeable. Took the time to give attention to detail and hear all my information and properly capture the situation at hand. Very prompt with responses and professional.