Means-Law

At first Mr. Means presented himself as a confident get the job done type of attorney and sold himself through a great sales pitch. Upon retaining Mr. Means, for both of my cases, we came up with a plan of attack and he started out getting things filed in our case right away as we discussed. As a couple of weeks went on, he became harder to get a hold of, he would take longer to respond to emails, and would take even longer to return phone calls. I sent him an email expressing my concerns on communication and he agreed that he would do better and to at least acknowledge my emails when I had questions pertaining to my case. Meanwhile he would was asking me for more money in which I paid him. As a couple of more weeks went on, he became even more unresponsive, in one of my cases he was ordered by the judge to submit an order to the court, which he did the following day, and after that I did not hear anything further on the order or if it was signed. I asked Mr. Means for updates several times in regards to that order and case only to be told that there was no update and the judge has not signed anything in my case and for me "to be patient as my case is moving forward". Finally I called the court clerk myself and was informed the judge signed an order over a week prior as well as an order for mediation a week and a half prior. That's right, Mr. Means bold faced lied to me as he had no clue what was going on in my case and only said whatever he could to save face. I told him that was not true as the court clerk verified there were two orders signed by the judge, he responded, "nice, I have called them four times", interesting, I called once and received the information myself. Mr. Means finally sent me a copy of the order and told me to call him Monday and let him know how visitation went for the upcoming week end. Upon reading the order it was clear Mr. Means did not even review the order as it was a different order and was submitted by opposing counsel for the judge to sign and my visitation had been removed for the following weekend as well as other times. I asked Mr. Means what happened to our order, he never even responded. After being ignored by Mr. Means I was able to find out on my own that opposing counsel filed an objection to our order to which Mr. Means failed to respond to causing the opposing counsels order to be the default. After demanding answers, Mr. Means never responded. I asked Mr. Means for an itemized invoice, and upon reviewing his invoice there was a missing payment in which I had a cleared check, there were billing entries with no description or explanation, charges for emails I sent that were never responded to, charges for emails on dates they were never sent, and the most erroneous charge, I was charged when Mr. Means text me asking for discounts through my work for his personal purchases not related to my case, among many other items. I sent Mr. Means several requests to review and adjust his billing which fell on deaf ears or to be told that if I didn't pay I would be met with further legal action. I fired Mr.Means for failure to meet deadlines, missed filing dates, filing errors, lost payments, and costing me far more than money, time with my child due to his negligence. Mr. Means refuses to return my personal items I left with him for my case, thumb drives and evidence for my case, despite him being required to return it which constitutes theft. He is now further delaying my case out of spite. I have seen him respond to prior negative reviews with threats of legal action if they didn't remove the review, and putting down his clients and their mental health condition, which shows his true character as a "professional". Everything I have stated in this review can be proven with texts or emails and I am taking further action against Mr. Means through numerous agencies. Save yourself the trouble and headache, run, don't walk away from this man as it is my belief he preys on people while bleeding them dry of money while stabbing therm in the back. He is in way over his head with his case load.

1 starnMy fiance and I hired Mark to write a cohabitation agreement. He took a $2500 "retainer" from us. My emails to him were often ignored and I had to repeatedly followup with him to get him to respond - often weeks going by and no reply. Each time it was the same excuse "I was in court". nnI understand that our job was small compared to some of his other clients but we could have at least received the courtesy of a response - saying I'll get back to you Xxxx. nnAlthough he did finish our agreement it was later than originally agreed upon and we have not received any invoice at all. The $2500 was a retainer, not a flat fee. I expected to receive monthly billing statements as I have with every other attorney I have hired in the past. Not have him take all of the money without any explanation at all. It has now been 3 months since he took our money and I have yet to hear from him with an itemized bill showing his time and charges. We feel robed. While we are happy with the agreement, we wish we had chosen someone else as his work was not worth $2500 or the stress of trying to get him to call or email us back.

I wish I could give a big fat 0 Star. This guy is a cheat and gets in over his head easily. I paid $4500 upfront and was told that I wouldn't need to pay anymore. But because I kept having questions on emails he would send me he said I needed "hand holding" and he was gonna start charging me his hourly rate. I got another attorney and they had me ask for an ITEMIZED LIST OF BILLABLE HOURS but he just ignored me. I messaged several times asking for the billable hours but again all for not. He still has my tax return papers from 2015 .For all I know he threw them out. Terrible experience!!!

Horrible attorney, slow with everything, very rude, would never use him again.