Michael Alan Ward

I hired Mike Ward to handle my divorce and in my opinion, I found him to be knowledgeable and offered very sound advice. Unfortunately, in my opinion, his billing wasn’t as sound as his knowledge of the law. Despite the fact that his contract specifically states that he will send monthly bills, I onl...y received one and that was after repeated phone calls and emails. My husband and I reconciled, I asked Mr. Ward to send me the remainder of my retainer. He ignored this request. I hired another lawyer to have my retainer returned, but Mr. Ward ignored this attorney’s request, so I filed a complaint with the Virginia Bar Association. The Bar sent an Investigator to interview Mr. Ward and review his files. It took two visits before Mr. Ward was able to provide two bills which had never been shared with me or the Virginia Bar at their initial request. Mr. Ward claimed he couldn’t send them because he didn’t have my contact information, which is untrue since he had sent me other information and my full contact information was listed on the contract he created for his services to me. In addition, we had been communicating via email, so it was always possible and simple to send me or the Virginia Bar the information in this manner. The bills given to the Investigator were in the format called block billing-i.e., lumping several tasks together to come up with one number. This is not an appropriate billing method for legal services and not in keeping with any other lawyer’s approach I have previously engaged for personal or business services. Of course, since I had never seen these bills, I was unable to question them until it was too late. Unfortunately, Mr. Ward received $12,000 from me on work that was never performed. In my opinion, if you select Mr. Ward for your attorney, you will get a very knowledgeable attorney, but you should request monthly statements and I wouldn’t give him a large retainer.