George Melville Johnson

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.