Svitlana Sangary

Svitlana Sangary caused me so many problems. She took my case and talked with me for the first two days. Then she cashed my retainer check and I could no longer reach her. She didn’t answer the phone or return my calls or emails. I didn’t hear from her for nearly a month after this! She told me she expected the case to cost about $ 3,500, but never presented or had me sign a fee agreement. The person suing me dropped the case. Ms. Sangary had done some work (even though she wouldn’t talk to me) and I agreed I owed her some money. But then I got her bill — $ 25,000! Yes, it went from $ 3,500 to $ 25,000 and she never once told me anything about the money. She never provided a bill until the end and I had no idea it would be that high. $ 18,000 of the bill was for «legal research» even though her website says she is an expert in civil law. I ended up suing her and didn’t have to pay her more than my retainer. She is now being investigated by the California Bar Association. My recommendation — stay as far from Svitlana Sangary as you can.

if you hear or read her name, you should run away with your money. She will charge you before you could tell what you want to be done on your case. Even on a very simple matter, she will charge you for her research when she claims that she has many experiences.

I was kind of a client of Svitlana Sangary, but not as an attorney. She took $ 3000 cash from my mother to pass on to me on her return to US and mentioned she wouldn’t be able to do it right away since she is so incredibly busy. 4 months passed. She stopped answering my calls and I was only able to hear her voice for a few seconds when I was calling from somebody else’s phone. 5 months later she mailed me a check without a signature, then asked to mail it back to her. I did. She claimed she never «received» it.
Sangary’s mother lives in Odessa, Ukraine and happens to be my mom’s acquaintance. Svitlana Sangary was visiting with her mother in December 2011 and my mother asked her for a favor — to deliver $ 3,000 to me. Svitlana Sangary agreed and took $ 3000 cash from my mother. My mother is 90% blind 73 year old lady, and it’s hard for her to utilize bank wire transfer or DHL services. This money was a present to her granddaughter, who turned 15 on Dec 24.
I didn’t let my mother know that this horrible person did. She is losing her eye sight when she gets nervous.
How can I not let people know what kind of a person they are dealing with!!! How can someone who is not hungry and does not need money to feed or treat hungry or sick children just keep someone else’s money? She charges people hundreds of $$ per hour. She makes a lot of money. She is not needy!!! I still cannot believe this happened. It must be made known to people.
A year after I wrote this review I got SUED by Svitlana Sangary for defamation. She sued over 50!!! people in the same case for the same charge — they wrote bad reviews about her on Unilocal,Rip-​Off Report, etc… It cost me over $ 4000 in lawyer’s fees and tones of my time, effort and nervous energy: I had to respond to numerous SPECIAL INTERROGATORIES, discovery requests, etc… etc…
Finally she dropped the charges at the court session (and that’s why we couldn’t collect these fees) in which the judge tentatively assigned the lawyer’s fees to my wonderful lawyer, Harvey Katzman, who had already defended Sangary’s victims before and won the cases.
Luckily she got disbarred for malpractice, but unfortunately only temporarily. For a year or 2 if I’m not mistaken. So beware!!!