Edward Franklin Berry

So many people had good things to say about Mr. Berry when I hired him. I didn't meet anyone who'd hired him before, just people who'd heard from others and a couple of people who worked for other attorneys. My first meeting with him left me confident that he would handle my divorce well and that he ...understood what I was going through. Once I paid him most of the retainer, everything changed. I heard from him less and less as time went by. I had to deal with his less-than-polite receptionist most of the time. Almost every question I had was answered with an "are you stupid?" tone of voice. I'm not stupid, I'd never been involved in any legal proceedings. He was the first attorney I'd ever spoken to in my life. I didn't know anything about a divorce, I had no idea what to expect. I was treated like a nuisance more often than not. At my temporary hearing, he catered to my ex's every request without even discussing with me. He lowered child support, gave him the pay schedule he wanted (so it'd be easier for my ex), and even gave him the visitation he wanted (which was less than it should have been). He told me I had no right to pursue any child support back pay and when my mother tried to understand why, he told us he knew the law, we didn't. I tried to find out what the normal protocol is for these types of cases from the judge (not knowing he couldn't legally discuss the case with me) and explained I couldn't get information from my very expensive attorney. Mr. Berry's receptionist called me and was ugly with me over it. She demanded that I come into the office to discuss it even though I told her I was unavailable due to my WORK schedule. They then scheduled mediation without me and I was notified by mail two weeks before the scheduled date that I'd have to pay $200 for every hour mediation took. I had NO idea I'd be spending any more money than what I was already paying him. He never told me. When I called and told them I couldn't afford this on such short notice, they told me I was the one who was trying to rush things. Both he and the receptionist said that to me. No, I was the one who was lost and confused and had had no help from them. My ex was a no-show so I got charged $100 to sit there for 20 min getting interrogated by my attorney about my communication with the judge. He wouldn't file contempt when my ex wasn't paying child support on time or in the right amount because being $800 behind wasn't really a big deal. I was to let him know when he reached $1500 or more. They were very easygoing with him, gave him all the time in the world to look over the papers and return them signed. He held them for 2 months, refusing to sign unless I lowered child support some more and was going to continue to hold them for 3 more. That was what it finally took for the receptionist to actually fight for me and get a court order for the child support. I don't think I spoke to Mr. Berry once after that "mediation," just the receptionist. When the divorce was finalized, I'd wished I'd just figured it out on my own and filed myself. It would have saved me money that I could have spent on my children while waiting for my ex to make his payments. Where all those great things about him had come from, I still don't know, but either they are all lies, or I was just too much of a newbie for him? I wouldn't tell someone not to use him if they chose to, but I wouldn't recommend him to anyone either.