Law Ofc Phillip H Darling

Phillip Darling is thorough. He explains everything well and allows enough time to think & decide. I recommend him 1000%.

Contacted his office after a referral from MetLegal, which I subscribe to via my workplace. I was polite and asked a reasonable question about his fees for estate planning, and received no response.

I contacted this office to work on mine and my parents estate planning. My job offers the MetLife legal plan so they were an option in the greater Kern County area. During the intake questionnaire and call, I made sure his office worked with Spanish speaking clients (I asked if I could translate during the planning process; they said yes). On the day of Mr. Darling’s visit there were immediate red flags that potential clients should be aware of: -Mr. Darling ran 20 minutes late. He said his staff gave him the wrong home address. -Mr. Darling expected me to have everything printed, when his staff mentioned Mr. Darling would have documents printed. -I actually had one copied printed from his website. However, Mr. Darling then says it was outdated. -Mr. Darling then says he would not work with us due to the language barrier despite me being able to translate. While I understand this, it’s upsetting that I had previously confirmed with his staff if this was going to be an issue. His staff said it wouldn’t be yet it was. -As a last red flag, we had postponed this home visit due to recent weather conditions. While this was completely understandable, my concern was when he said that he could do estate planning via Zoom. During the intake process I had asked his staff if this was an option and they said no. Not once did I hear Mr. Phillip take responsibility for his office’s lack of communication or his willingness to make things right. As you can see, there is also a disconnect between his staff and him on how services are provided. Despite all of this, I still tried to remedy the situation. When I asked him to please reiterate what he needed me (a potential client) to do to make sure no future barriers would exist, he was dismissive and evidently didn’t want to have me and family as clients. If you’re considering this legal office, please vet them with any and every concern you may have. I hope their service for you is better than what I experienced. Our search for an estate planning lawyer continues.

Mr. Darling gave me great advice to change the direction I was going (and save me money) by filing an Affidavit of Small Estate instead of Probate. He was professional and knowledgable and advised me with all my questions. His time was well worth the fee and I would highly recommend him to anyone.

He's one of the few lawyers in Tehachapi which is probably the only reason he's still in business. Do yourself a favor and go to Bakersfield and LA. This guy held up a settlement when my Uncle died by not answering phone or emails to get the settlement done causing a lot of stress and extra money over a minor issue. Horrible. His Trustee ran amuck too and did whatever he wanted