Ivy Stewart Duggan

Ivy "Stewart" Duggan accepted a $3,000.00 retainer fee upon the execution of a retainer agreement to represent me in a domestic relations case. From the initial retainment to the day of the required mediation scheduled 60 days later, not once did Mr. Duggan meet with me, talk with me over the phone,... contact me or return my attempts to contact him in any way regarding my case. On the day of mediation, Mr. Duggan was not present at the time the session was scheduled to begin. I had to contact Mr. Duggan's legal assistant, who provided me Mr. Duggan's mobile phone number, and call him to confirm whether or not he was going to even be in attendance. Considering we had yet to fully discuss my case, much less mediation strategy and terms, ultimately I was forced to essentially act as a pro se litigate with little help from Mr. Duggan. Mr. Duggan actually told the Mediator that he "thought I had gotten a pretty good deal" in reference to the terms of the temporary order that had been issued prior to my retaining Mr. Duggan as "legal counsel. Mediation was completely unsuccessful, and no progress was made, except perhaps a worsening of the situation. If that weren't enough, Mr. Duggan proceeded to communicate with opposing counsel and circumvent the only status conference scheduled between the conclusion of mediation and the final hearing. At that point Mr. Duggan had handsomely compensated himself and his legal assistant in amounts above and beyond the $3,000.00 retainer provided through discretionary overbilling. (i.e. Mr. Duggan billed his legal assistant out at $90.00 an hour. One particular statement included two (2) hours billed for execution of a letter to be sent to me. The body of the letter was TWO sentences and its basic content redundant). Concurrently, I received a bill for a balance well over $1,000.00 in excess of the $3,000.00 retainer, along with a request to provide another $2,000.00 retainer! My final question "Seeing as you did not accomplish anything or provide any real service pertaining to my case with $3,000.00, what could you possibly do another $2,000.00!?!" went unanswered. Several months later, while meeting with another attorney in Rome/Floyd County, I proported to him about the conduct of Mr. Duggan and the money I felt he had wrongfully taken. To which this attorney replied. "I hate that you got "Duggan-ed"".