George Melville Johnson

I had been working for the VA for nine years, and I had always been great at my job. Then I was assigned a new supervisor, and suddenly I was terrible at my job. This supervisor was setting me up to fail, and I was facing losing the job that I love, and the job that I am great at because of him. I br...ought on Melville Johnson, P.C., and soon after they submitted the discovery requests the VA rescinded my termination. At first I was happy to have my job back, but after two months they still hadn’t paid me. When I explained the situation to the team at Melville Johnson, they contacted the Judge and I received my paycheck at the end of the week. It was an expensive process, but it was worth it.

I had worked for the federal government for thirteen years, and as I got older my supervisors tried to force me out of my job in order to replace me with a younger employee. They increased my workload and placed unreasonable deadlines in order to set me up for failure. They claimed that they were doi...ng this because they were not able to hire new employees to replace the one who had left, but I was the only one who’s work was increased. This had a detrimental effect on my health and disability, and I was no longer able to work. With the help of Melville Johnson, P.C. and Mr. Durishan I was able to take my constructive termination case to the Merit System Protection Board, and we were able to settle my appeal. They kept me in the loop every step of the way, and took the time to make sure that I understood what to expect. While I would have liked a larger settlement, the team at Melville Johnson, P.C. got the government up to their highest offer and I am glad I chose them.

Melville Johnson, PC's handling of my Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) case was superlative. From the day I first contacted them to the completion of the case, everything was handled promptly and professionally. They advised me well, worked with me to develop--and keep me appraised of--strateg...y, and aggressively pursued resolution that would be beneficial for me. I was very satisfied with every aspect of their handling of my case.

I hired Melville Johnson, PC because my human resources department completely botched my disability retirement application. They told me that I needed to have my Social Security Disability Insurance approved before they could file my application for disability retirement. That process took years, a...nd when we submitted my disability retirement application the Office of Personnel Management said I was too late. I worked with Mr. Durishan and the team at Melville Johnson, PC and OPM agreed to accept my application. OPM then denied it because they said I did not have a disability. Thankfully the team over at Melville Johnson, PC were able to work with my health care providers, and I am now able to afford living closer to my kids with my disability retirement annuity payments.

Everything I am about to say is merely my opinion about and my perception of my experience as a client of the GMJ law firm. FIRST of all, my experience was practically identical to the experience of the person who wrote the 8/7/13 review of GMJ law firm. SECOND, Mr. Johnson seems to care about only... one thing: getting as much money from his client as he can. Favorable results seemed secondary to him at most. Unfortunately, by the time I realized I was being duped, I had invested every financial resource I had into GMJ's representation. THIRD, I did not receive good representation. Initially, Mr. Johnson led me to believe that he, the supposedly well-experienced person I thought I was hiring, would be handling my case. After a couple of conversations about my case with Mr. Johnson, and me paying Mr. Johnson a hefty retainer, without even discussing it with me, Mr. Johnson passed my case off to a woman who made it obvious that she didn't give a hoot about my case and that her primary interest was in leaving GMJ. Speaking of passing my case off to another lawyer, Mr. Johnson's law firm was like a game of musical chairs for lawyers. In a one-year period, my case was transferred from one miserable, angry, inexperienced lawyer to another miserable, angry inexperienced lawyer. There were so many comings and goings that I started to wonder if the lawyers all left so quickly because they were afraid they would lose their law licenses due to being expected to do something unethical, illegal, or inappropriate. FOURTH, looking back I can clearly see that Mr. Johnson has a very well-calculated M.O. In summary, he takes advantage of the fact that most clients seeking a lawyer are distraught, stressed out, sick, anxious, depressed, angry or all six due to whatever their legal problem is by the time they come to him. Specifically, Mr. Johnson (1) expertly gauges the client's level of vulnerability and clout; (2) leads the client to believe that he cares about the outcome of the client's case and that a reasonable settlement offer is just around the corner; (3) demands more and more legal fees allegedly to continue to negotiate in the client's best interest; (4) eventually obtains an offer but fails to communicate the offer to the client if he thinks there is not enough in the offer for himself; (5) stops returning phone calls and starts sending bills showing exorbitant, unjustified costs; (6) demands an additional unreasonable amount of money and threatens to drop your case if you don't come up with it immediately; and (7) threatens to sue if you for slander if you say something negative about him or sue you for breach of contract if you fail to pay what he thinks you owe him. After experiencing all of that, I think your average person who relies on the GMJ firm would end up exactly where I ended up: jobless, broke, bankrupt, in foreclosure, and more distraught than I was when I first met with Mr. Johnson. And, I was the PLAINTIFF in my case.