Murphy Law Group, PC

Tim Murphy of the Murphy Law Group passed the bar and practices landlord/​tenant law.
I retained him to deal with a drug addict living in my building and another tenant who had not paid rent. He charged an arm and a leg to appear in court (an FED) and then, in a series of phone conversations and emails, gave me incorrect legal advice.
In an attempt to recover deposits Murphy told me I was legally obligated to pay, I went down to small claims court to file against the previous owners. Imagine my surprise when I learned from the Multnomah county court person at the window that we are, in fact, not liable for deposits the previous owner (illegally demanded, kept, never disclosed during the sale, and then refused to return to the tenants).
The issue is between the previous owner and the tenants, not us as the current managers. I am not liable for a deposit the previous owner asked for, kept, and never disclosed in escrow. I paid him Murphy a $ 750 retainer and then a $ 150.00 bill and got one FED, emails, and the wrong information.
He is an attorney to avoid. He cost me a lot: going down to small claims and paying back deposits we were not obligated to pay.
As it turns out, if you are a property manager or a landlord and you have tenants who haven’t paid their rent you can use Action services for a flat, low-​cost FED. That or Pete Meyers for landlord/​tenant.

Hello Warren
I am writing to follow up our conversation today. For your reference, I am attaching your Unilocal review.
Below is my initial email describing my fee structure. It contains the paragraph:
«My retainer for an FED (eviction) is $ 750. As I described yesterday, I charge a flat fee of $ 250 to file an FED Complaint and attend the mandatory „First Appearance“ hearing. There are filing and service fees of $ 125 for each FED. In addition, if a Notice of Restitution is issued after a Judgment is entered or the Sheriff is needed to remove an occupant, the court and service fees are respectively $ 53 and $ 253. All other legal services are billed hourly as described in the Fee Agreement.»
In response to this email, you replied with the single word — «Agreed»
For this reason, this statement on Unilocal is false:
«He says he will charge $ 375 fee then bill hourly for conversations he insists on having.»
Moreover, you paid a retainer of $ 750. At your request, I returned $ 332. Accordingly, the following statement on Unilocal is also entirely untruthful:
«He spent my retainer before ever filing the case.»
Please remove this libelous Unilocal posting immediately or I will take legal action to compel its removal. If the latter is required, I will be filing suit in Multnomah County and use «long arm» jurisdiction of Oregon to obtain personal jurisdiction. I will then use ORS 20.080 to seek and recover my attorney fees for this litigation. Please also know that «‘[o]né who is liable to another for a libel or slander is liable also for emotional distress and bodily harm which is proved to have been caused by the defamatory publication or, in the absence of such proof, for such emotional distress as normally results from such a publication’» Wheeler v. Green, 286 Or 99, 124, 593 P2d 777 (1979). In other words, the law presumes that a business is damaged by libelous statements and I do not have to prove any damages in order to recover a judgment.
If the posting is not removed entirely, I will be filing suit based on past damages, and also seeking a court order to remove the post. I detest the idea of suing a former client just slightly less than I detest the idea of someone lying about me on the internet.
Thank you and I will check Unilocal in two days to see whether the inaccurate post has been removed.
Tim Murphy