Dave Hawkins’s Reviews

Dave Hawkins took my case for a flat fee, and told me he saw it as having a seven in ten chance of succeeding. I paid him two months before, he filed on the last possible day before my case would be invalid due to time allowed by Washington law. Early on, opposing counsel indicated they would like to have settlement negotiations. I told Mr. Hawkins that I very, very strongly wanted to settle. He made an offer, and it was ignored. He let that slide until the arbitration date was set. All the way through ~ which was a year and a half ~ he kept talking about arbitration, which I made clear I did not want to go through. Every thing he did was handled at the last minute, some of which I had to point out to him after he'd not kept me up to date with the communications. Most of his communications to me were near the midnight hour and always last minute. I was not kept in the loop, at one point he essentially waived my HIPAA rights without my knowledge because he wasn't letting me know how he was seeming to ignore communications from opposing counsel. He sent me emails that made no sense. He sent me an email that had all his other clients/attorneys CC'd in, as at times he would want to indicate that "the internet is down" or he "couldn't get into email". He would almost never respond to questions I asked him, did not explain some of the bizarre things he was doing. Because he delayed everything to the most extreme limit, he gave the opposing party time to set themselves up in such a way that arbitration was a sure loss. I'd had to borrow the money I paid him upfront. More than once I asked him to give it back to I could find someone to actually represent me. He always said he had already put in more hours than what the flat fee was, which was true if you count covering his mistakes up or trying to fix them. He never spelled my name right, though I corrected him repeatedly, and I cringed when he sat in the arbitration office and said my name incorrectly in front of the opposing team. Poor spelling and grammar made for more embarrassment on our (my) side. On a number of occasions he took efforts to make me appear irresponsible to the opposing attorney; such as claiming I hadn't been in touch when I actually had (he just didn't check and misled them so he made me, his client, appear badly).

Mr. Hawkins is not a bad person. He came to my home when we had to meet because I am disabled, his willingness to do so was part of why I hired him. In my opinion, he has a soft heart which overextends his abilities to adequately represent the overload of clients he takes on. I was disappointed when he told me his car had broken down three days before the arbitration was scheduled and wouldn't be able to take me there after a year and a half of telling me he would drive me there (he said he could get there with ease by hopping a bus). He did wind up using my car to drive me there, and then had it for an additional three weeks under the auspice of needing it to get back for the second half of arbitration which didn't require my presence. In that three week period he put about 200 miles on my car, lost one of my keys, and returned it with less gas than it had before. Though he didn't have time to learn my name or the facts of the case, once arbitration was over he indicated that he would like to go to movies with me, to lunch, to take me and my dog to a dog park.

The entire experience of having Dave Hawkins for my legal counsel was frustrating and pointless.

Dave was prompt in responding to all of my questions/calls and the filing of my dissolution. He was always courteous when we met/spoke and he kept me apprised of everything that was going on. He is extremely knowledgeable and I completely agree in a previous review, he is fair.

Dave will go weeks without returning your phone call. tells you he is too busy to work on your case. angered easily. swears. mis-spells names and puts incorrect information on court documents.

I found Dave's contact info on Craig's list. I needed to file an adjustment to child support and had always done it myself. The problem is that if you do it yourself, it takes a year to get a hearing. I also do not believe in paying outrageous attorney's fee to upgrade child support: kind of counter productive.
Dave gave me a flat rate which was low and never tried to ask me for more. When we were ready to file, the process took about one month and I got better results than when I was doing it alone.
I like Dave's personality because unlike many lawyers, he seeks fairness, not just what the client wants. Dave is interested in the genuine outcome of the case, not just trying to win the case.

I've known many lawyers in my lifetime but have never had the need to hire an attorney until now.

Dave Hawkins is, first and foremost, a professional. As my rating states he was responsive, knowledgable and certainly kept me informed.

Mr. Hawkins emailed any changes that were pertinent to my case and made sure I knew how to conduct myself in the courtroom.

I highly recommend Dave Hawkins as a divorce and family law attorney.