The Rouse Firm
reviews and complaints

I am a senior citizen. I hired Derek Rouse to represent me in a case with and auto repair company for negligence.
Mr. .Rouse charged me flat fee for his services. As much as I like this young man I cannot recommend him to anyone to handle a legal matter. He was always full of excuses, it was quite frustrating. To give you an idea of the level of incompetence and disorganization I was dealing with; Derek had promised that he would be filing interrogatories before the trial date for the appeal, it never happened. Again I am not here to attack his character. I personally struggled to write this review but his handling of my case was questionable. I tried very hard to be reasonable with him and allow to make up for the mistakes he had made but he just could not see past his own excuses. On a site where the attorney has the opportunity to respond before the review is posted he claims he won the case at trial.
The fact is the opposing party never showed up for the re-trial. When he addressed the court demanding attorney fees for me he was ordered to take the stand to go on record.
When he got on the stand he could not remember the statute when asked by the court.
At the end of the appeal period the opposing party mailed a check to him in my name. Instead of him handing the check over to me he used his power of attorney to extract fees that were never a part of any agreement. If you are looking for an attorney you don't want to hire this one.

If you are looking for an attorney this is one you don’t want to hire. Mr. Rouse was hired for a simple civil case and charged a flat fee for his service. When the case was over and settled Mr. Rouse reneged on his original signed agreement and took money that was not his.
In a response from another site (avvo) he claims he won the case on appeal. In a way he did and that’s only because the opposing party never appeared for the hearing.
Arrogant, untruthful, moody and deceptive.
I personally struggled to write this review but his handling of my case was questionable. I tried very hard to be reasonable with him and allow him to make up for the mistakes that he made. I was certainly more generous than anyone I know would have been. But he just couldn't see past his own excuses. When the case was over the amount was several hundred dollars less because he stole money that was not a part of the original agreement.
When Mr. Rouse addressed the court requesting attorney fees for me (plaintiff) he was called to the stand to go on record, the problem was he could not remember the statute when asked by the judge. If you don’t know what the statute is to demand your fees you won’t get paid.