James H. Cooke Jr.

I hired James Cooke in a time of need and therefor was unable to do my research. I wish I had. Mr. Cooke took on my case when he was completely overbooked. Even his receptionist and assistant stated this to me. Mr. Cooke Cancelled 80 % of our meetings after I had already shown up to the meeting. I wo...uld wait over an hour past the meeting time and his assistant would say he went home for the day. He would also be so over booked that on days I would have court Mr. Cooke would have his assisstant call me the day before to tell me Mr. Cooke was cancelling my court date because he would be in court on another case. Mr. Cooke was totally unprepared in my child custody case. My case was a very simple case and Mr. Cooke did not do any research or get any of the documents necessary to win my case. Several times Mr.Cooke went into court completely unprepared for court which would in turn give the opposing parties lawyer the upper hand. Mr .Cooke would then turn around and blame me saying I should have been prepared. However; it was never discussed with me what to bring or how to be prepared. I prepped about 80% of my case with my own prepared documents and reports, all without Mr. Cookes help. Mr. Cooke is also extremely unprofessional. Any time we would have a meeting he would be on the phone making my wife and I wait a long time to talk to him. When we finally talked to him he would cut us off every time we would try to speak and he would only talk about how he was going to win this case because the other attorney looked unattractive, because all the judges loved him and did whatever he said, and other very unprofessional things. Mr. Cooke also several times yelled at my wife or talked bad about my wife to me when she was not in the room. Mr. Cooke will never answer your phone calls or return your calls. He will tell his assistant to tell you he will call you back, but never once in the 1.5 years I worked with him did he call back. Mr. Cooke does not bill you correctly. He wont write up finance statements until the end of the court case which results in over billing charges. He states he is willing to work with you but is nothing but rude and condescending when you discuss the billing. Several times Mr. Cooke would cancel my court dates without my permission and then bill me to cancel the court dates, even though he cancelled the courts dates because he overbooked himself. Finally my biggest issue with Mr. Cooke is he made several decisions in my case without my knowlege. These were things that I did NOT want him to do. Mr. Cooke would go behind my back without my permission and make these decisions that I would find out about after a later date and I was unable to change. Mr. Cooke is completely against everything you want in your lawyer. He will not help you he will hinder you. At a time when you're already stressed and concerned he will make it a million times worse. He charges a very larger retainer fee that is non refundable at any point and it will be a complete waste of your money. At the end of everything you will be wanting to hire a new lawyer. Do not whatever you do Hire this lawyer.

I am a recent client of Attorney James H. Cooke, Jr. He was unprepared for hearing and cut deals benefitting the opposing party. He did not put up a fight, and ignores client wishes. Asks for (billable) phone conferences and meeting, then does not follow up with the game plan. Blames his staff for e...verything. Staff takes sides and if they don't agree with your side they lag. He refuses to communicate and does not answer emails or phone calls. His office sent me an official document for signature and Notary with blanks to be filled in by his office. When I refused to sign until blanks were filled in, he stopped work and refused to answer repeated calls to his office. This review reflects my experience. I do NOT recommend this attorney to anyone who wants serious representation.