“After I hired Adam, I actually felt safe and protected. He was going to be the best person to look after my best interests” – Anna
“Hi, my name is Anna. I’m a new Yorker. I run a finance company. I’m a single mother, on a couple of boards. And I grew up in Manhattan. When I purchased a house about a year and a half ago that came with a lawsuit, that came with a very persistent, hostile neighbor, I decided to call my best friends who are top real estate people, and both of the families recommended Adam. So I bought a house that’s adjacent to the water in bridge Hampton, and I have a path with a potential dock and boats or jet skis that leads directly to the bay. And I have a neighbor that has had a house next door to me for several years, that was arguing for an easement and the path in this case, um, based on some estimates was worth about half a million dollars.
So I decided this is probably not worth giving up. So I decided to pursue my defense actively. I think the case before I purchased the property was going on for about a year and a half. Well, the lawyer that was previously on the case, uh, was my title insurance company. So they’re not really experts in easements and Adam was, and Adam also happens to have a place in the Hamptons. So he’s very familiar with the area and the territory. And so I was very comfortable hiring him. So he was, the neighbor was very clever because he initiated the lawsuit during a period of time when there was a lot of sales and change of ownership of the neighbors. So it was actually rather difficult to find witnesses and because I had bought the house from an actual builder, no one had been on the property for several years while the house was being put up.
Adam actually was very kind. He came out to the property personally. He spent several hours inspecting the path that was in question. He looked at every angle. He inspected the difference and the wall between my property and the neighbor’s property. He took pictures of the woods, um, the Woodlands and questions and the wetlands. So the fact that I think he came himself made a really big difference because I think he understood the case far better than if somebody else had shown up, but given his experience, I think it made a very big difference. The previous attorneys that I was using, I did not actually hire because it was a title insurance company. So I frankly don’t even know if they made it out to the property. And I think depending on what time of year you come to the property, you actually observe, different levels of vegetation. So I think that actually potentially made a difference in this case, because in this situation, the neighbor was arguing that he was dragging heavy canoes down a path and in the summer, there’s a lot of, shrubbery and some of it is very difficult to walk through and it also becomes, during rains and post rains, it becomes covered with water. So it’s very muddy. So it’s very difficult to drag a canoe that’s pretty heavy through this sort of environment. So, Adam also made a difference because he handles all the deposition in person. And I think through his argument and questioning was able to prove that it was nearly impossible to do what the neighbor said he was doing. And furthermore, he was able to convince the neighbor to confess that he actually used a saw to take down protected, wetland on my property.
Adam had very specific details and knowledge and had actually spent time in preparation. So he was able to, through logic and very direct questioning, get the neighbor to confess and to position myself as, with a very, very strong defense and a potential offense in demonstrating that the neighbor’s actions were wrong. We had talked to most of the prior neighbors. We had established that they had not seen him using the path, which was also very vital in the case.
Well, when I first realized the seriousness of the case, I was really scared. I had never purchased a property in the Hamptons before in this magnitude – this was a fairly expensive property, even for the Hamptons. I’ve never had a real estate litigation period. So I was, I was frankly really, really, really scared. And this wasn’t something I could discuss with many people because you really had to have experience in the area. After I hired Adam, I felt actually safe and protected that he was going to be probably the best person to look after my best interests. My neighbor actually dropped the case because Adam provided sufficient evidence to prove that he had no basis to continue with the case and the case was meritless. I have already recommended Adam to a multiple of my friends, whether they own real estate or not, and said, if you ever need somebody that you can count on and that will fight ferociously on your behalf and have your best interest at stake, I would recommend Adam.”