Law Office Of Christopher Biely

I am forever grateful for Noelle Gaston. She expertly guided me through an exceedingly complex probate case that unfolded like a soap opera! From day one, I felt confident that she had my best interests at heart and she proved it time and time again over the course of our journey together. She is professional, tenacious, and thorough. I highly recommend her and her team. Thank you Noelle!!!

Noelle assisted me with completing the wishes of a deceased family member. There was a lot of components towards executing the will and dealing with many beneficiaries of whom I had previously never met. Regardless, she helped me through the entire process until completion. Excellent communication and diligence towards my case. Thanks!

RUN AS FAST AND AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS LAW FIRM AS YOU CAN (Noelle Gaston & her husband Chris Biely)!!! I'm just trying to save you the extra money, time, and trouble we've been through. We hired Noelle Gaston, this law firm, December 2021 and paid $1500 up front for filing fees and publications. It was a simple probate case (1 house, all siblings in agreement, and my husband as administrator). We were going to buy the house off of the estate for appraised value as it was passed down generations (None of the siblings wanted to get rid of it.) Noelle made us hire a real estate agent, I found one, which we had to pay a percentage of the sale price to. The agent opened up the escrow and I already had my own lender, all 3 of which I worked closely with, several times a week. Financing fell through at the last minute. My husband called Noelle and told her the 4 siblings wanted to keep the house in the family, even if 3 of them needed to sign over their portion to him. She said that would be different from the CA regulated probate fee, my husband asked if she had a ballpark $, she said No, he told her "I'm not rich and I can't just willy nilly let you run away with hours." This is when it all started. On 12/27/2022 She backdated $2,585 of extraordinary fees and applied them to our case, even after a meeting we had where she said she hadn't done anything extraordinary yet, and before she did she would let us know. Some of these charges included reading emails she was just CC'd in as an FYI. When we contested the charges with her she said: this was a min charge, we could either pay the $2,585, or if we continued to contest it she would seek $4,180. When we told her we wanted the court to decide the extraordinary fees (I had several consults with other local and CA probate attorneys, who agreed these extraordinary fees were excessive), she refused to file the last court document of the probate. She then said communication had broken down between us and wanted us to voluntary sign to relieve her as counsel. We told her we just wanted to finish with her because it was almost done. She filed a motion to be relieved and charged us another $1,100 for filing it. I hired another local probate attorney to finish. He asked her for our remaining $466.89 of the fee we paid in the beginning to file the last step, she refused to give him OUR MONEY, so we had to pay another $500 filing fee and also additional fees for representation. Her extraordinary fees at this point were over $7,000. Court ordered mediation for the fees, we paid her $1966.89 in extraordinary fees, statutory fees, and the new lawyer’s fees because we just wanted to be done (after almost 2 years) with probate and try to move forward from the death of a loved one.

I was overwhelmed by the task of having to update a twenty year old trust. Noelle Gaston was professional, very responsive, and patient in guiding me through what was needed to revise the trust. Noelle is knowledgeable and did a wonderful job of walking me through, giving advice and assistance when I needed it especially with contacting & supplying the paperwork needed by my financial advisor. I would highly recommend Noelle and look forward to working with her as needed in the future.

HONEST, EFFICIENT, RELIABLE I highly recommended Mr. Biely. I had recently changed attorneys due to lack of communication, and many other small things with my prior attorney. Mr Biely was very honest and up front about how he’d be able to help me with my case. He’s very professional, on top of deadlines, and as well takes the additional time and effort to make sure the other parties attorney are staying on top of the situation. He provides detailed email communication, so you are aware that he is continually working as hard as he can on your case. Prior to my current services with Mr. Biely, I was also involved on another matter, to which Mr. Biely was very honest, dedicated, and provided great communication to which I had been lacking. If you want a attorney that isn’t going to sit around worried about collecting a check, Christopher Biely is your guy! I’m beyond thankful that we were able to find him.