The Law Offices of Heidi T. Cochrane

I was recommended to this attorney by my legal insurance- the first conversation with her she seemed very attentive, said that it would be a quick case and asked for me to send her my basic details of case after signing retainer. After this, I did not hear from her for over 2 weeks, as she went out for a week on vacation- had no idea until after her return she was going to be gone. Then a week later she had gone out for a medical situation (100% not faulting her for this- just gives timeline)- she then emailed saying she would be back in the office. She had asked for one more small bit of info and said she would be sending over my papers- again, I did not hear from her. I emailed her to see status and got an automated message that she was again out of the office for over a week. Over 4 months after that initial contact, she did not file anything with the court and only the basic paperwork was completed- which she blamed me for taking so long because the "formatting was off" when she received them back- despite me opening them through Adobe in Google Docs- and this hardly seems a reason to not be able to file paperwork OR get in touch with your client if it needed to be edited. I said I was unhappy with the fact that this case she said would be quick was now drawn out this long with no timeframe of completion- or at this point, even a view of initiating the divorce. She emailed me back saying she does not need to disclose the "inner workings" of her office (as in- the fact her support staff apparently quit within this 4-month period and she doesn't need to to tell her clients she will be out of the office and therefore unable to take on their case---) and then blamed me for the papers being too hard for her to go through. The page breaks were maybe different than she thought? I didn't edit anything- so it was exactly how she had put them together. She then said I was fine to seek alternate counsel. I replied that I wouldn't if she could tell me she would be able to file the completed and signed papers as she had had them at that point for over a month. She sent an email back saying she was terminating attorney-client relationship and refused to return my paperwork with my information. I am now having to find another lawyer and start the entire process over. This time is stressful enough, and her incompetence just made things that much harder.