(Location: Nebraska) Hey everyone, I recently resigned from a job and was informed by the owner that I was “banned from the store” and cannot return and my check will be mailed. A family member then reached out and informed that under Nebraska law, my check must arrive by mail by the time the pay period checks were supposed to be deposited. They also pointed out their lack of management and pointed out that I should not be banned for such a little thing. During this, they also changed their 5 star review on Google, to a 1 star, and didn’t leave any text description on the review. I was then sent a message by the owner that stated “You will be hearing from my lawyer, see you in court.” and about an hour later, a PDF was sent by the owner, that included a Cease and Desist for defamation of character for “fraudulent and fake reviews.” I now have 2 business days to remove the review before legal action will be carried out.
I then did some digging and this “lawyer” is allegedly not a real person. They are not licensed in Nebraska Bar Association, or the Illinois Bar Association (where the law office allegedly is) the phone number on the document brings me to “Legal Aid of Nebraska”, and the address (that was spelled wrong on the document) is a “for rent” office building in Chicago. Also, the website that I was told to contact if I had any questions is “under construction”. Lastly, the document doesn’t seem to be notarized.
Honestly, I don’t know what to do in this situation. Who to contact, or how I should go forward. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Comments
You should completely ignore it. Especially because you didn’t write the review or have any control over it. If the owner contacts you about it again, say you were having trouble contacting the lawyer and ask if they have a better way to do so. Have you received your last check? That is the more pressing concern and you should be ready to press for that.
If someone is holding out to be a lawyer and aren’t you can report to the Nebraska Bar.
https://supremecourt.nebraska.gov/administration/attorneys/unauthorized-practice-law
It has to be sent in my mail. See the Complaint Form below.
Notarized or not doesn’t matter for this.
If they’re pretending to be a lawyer, that might amount to the crime of practicing law without a license. But even if it does, I don’t know if the police would be interested. Might be worth calling and asking them, and/or calling up the Nebraska Bar Association and seeing what they have to say about fake lawyers.
Apart from that, ignore his silly attempt at bullying. In the unlikely event you receive some indication that an actual lawsuit was filed, check with the court to see if it’s real (and if it is, treat it seriously, no matter how dumb its claims).
Call the State Bar and send them the letter. Mention you suspect someone is practicing without a license.