Attorney Vito Sciolto

#2453

Complaint One  This complaint is listed by Richard Garganta and goes as follows:  Several years ago I hired my first attorney, Vito L. Sciolto for a real estate matter that I needed litigated.  [Riley v Garganta]  Att. Sciolto was also the first attorney I fired.  Due to several factors, this case file is unavailable to me and I am submitting this complaint from memory.  To be fair, Att. Sciolto may be a good "paper" attorney  [i.e. wills, trusts, house sales etc.] but I did not find him to be a good court room or trial litigator.   In fact, he did everything he could to avoid anything but "paper lawyering."

At a deposition, after clearly stating my position before starting, I had to remind Att. Sciolto who he was representing.  Att. Sciolto was telling me he couldn't get court dates when all he had to do was schedule with the clerk.  Att. Sciolto filed a motion on the case and the Judge stated, "This isn't even a legal motion."  I was in the courtroom without Att. Sciolto's knowledge.  When I called later to find out how the motion went, Att. Sciolto did not inform me of the Judge's remarks preferring instead to go into a vague, lengthy explanation why the motion was rejected.  It appeared to me that Att. Sciolto didn't really know how to handle a case like mine and was "winging it."  Att. Sciolto lied so many times about court dates, when something would be done etc., I finally filed 2 or three complaints with the Supreme Court Disciplinary Board about this.

The answer came back, "We see no wrong doing."  I recall in a telephone conversation with the Board, I was told by whoever was handling the call that, "attorneys lying to clients is considered in the gray area and we usually don't take any action on this type of complaint." 

I finally fired Att. Sciolto for non-performance of duty.  Att. Sciolto said I was what attorneys call, "a difficult client."   Initially Att. Sciolto wanted to charge me a ridiculous fee for getting a copy of my file.  He reneged and handed it over after the final complaint with the Disciplinary Board.  Att. Sciolto then told me I owed him $3,000 in fees.  I told him to sue me.  I never heard any more from Att. Sciolto.  I continued Pro Se.  Eventually, the Judge told us to go into the hall and discuss settlement giving an example of what we might want to consider.  [This wasn't a situation where one party was expected to walk away empty handed]  However, since the Judge suggested we might want to consider my walking with considerably more than the opposing party, both parties felt it best to end the matter that way.  Both sides felt the Judge had given us a clue as to how he was leaning. 

EMAIL Caught! right now!