Judith Dixon

I hired Judith Dixon, of Dixon & Brooks, to handle my divorce, in late 2009. I was impressed with her knowledge, background, to-the-point, no-nonsense style. She handled my divorce quickly, efficiently and without any problems. I would have rated her services higher, but I was very disappointed with ...the fact that the price range she quoted in the initial interview was far below what it ended up costing me. She gave me a price range that I was comfortable with, and that is why I chose her. She asked for a retainer that was $1000-1500 greater then the quoted price range, which I paid, assuming that I would get back this $1000-1500 once the divorce was final especially since she told me this was one of the easiest divorces she had ever worked on (no children or real-estate involved, property was already divided, and divorce was mutually agreed upon). A month after the divorce was final, I received a bill from her office for a couple of dollars. I thought this must be a comical mistake, and scanned the bill for errors. There were charges for every little thing, including short (very costly) voice mails to confirm a couple of appointment times left by her assistant. I spotted an error regarding packages her office had mailed for me. I had given her assistant (at her request) a check to cover the mailing charges and this was not credited to my account. The breakdown of expenses and charges on her invoices were way over and beyond anything I expected, or was told about in the initial interview, and managed to eat up all of my retainer, plus a couple of dollars! I wrote a letter to Ms. Dixon, outlining everything mentioned above, including the double charge for mailing my boxes, but the only response I received back was the discontinuation of receiving invoices in the amount of $2.00 and change. I understand that attorneys are expensive (I have 3 in my own family) and charge for every teeny tiny little thing, and then some, but I wish Ms. Dixon had been more forthcoming and accurate in her assessment of costs that would be incurred. If I had known the final bill would be $1000-1500 greater then quoted, I would have chosen another attorney to handle this. This was a very simple divorce that any attorney could have easily handled, and in these very tough economic times, I was really counting on getting part of the retainer back.