Joseph Gufford III

This attorney is just about the money. Taking it from you - and not performing the services you paid for. I fired him after a month into the case and he kept 100% of the retainer money which was $8100. This is my story: My story: My wife’s sister is 74 years old suffers from dementia and was in a... divorce from her husband of 27 years. She gets 700 a month in social security, was abused by her husband and about to be homeless on the street, from a very badly structured settlement she agreed to though coercion. I hired Gufford to get her bad settlement agreement re-negotiated. He did nothing. I ended up settling the case with the opposing party myself by threatening litigation they agreed to modify the settlement agreement. I then asked Gufford to finalize the NEW agreement. Again nothing. He never responded to me, and more days went by. As anyone knows who has ever negotiated anything, when parties agree to a settlement, you need to move quickly to “seal the deal”. Again, Gufford seemed to care less about it. He had his money. When I did finally reach him in a phone call… he barely remembered what the facts of the case were, and I had to explain to him everything like we were starting from scratch, which was contact the Petitioner’s representatives and finalize the agreement. Guess what happened next – NOTHING. He never picked up the phone or contacted them. Another week goes by and the opposition changed their mind and started adding more things to the deal. By this time after all the lost momentum, I was completely frustrated and realized I had made a gigantic mistake in hiring Gufford. He is not only a bad lawyer, but he also doesn’t care one iota about his client. So, I fired him. He may have memory problems or just be slow vs being unethical – but either way, that’s not someone you want in your corner on a divorce case.

I payed thousands of dollars a document. In November it will be a year and it is still not completed. Forget email he doesn’t return them. It frightens me to think this is the service you receive? Maybe because I am a woman? He actually called back one time and called me a different client. He is uno...rganized just a disaster

I wouldn't recommend this attorney to anyone. Hiring him was a complete waste of money and him and his paralegal got nothing accomplished. Mr. gufford, as well as his entire office staff, were cometely and utterly unprofessional. It took weeks sometimes for them to even return a phone call, all of th...e advice they gave me and the things they told me to do back fired on me. They did not file a single thing on time, and they did not take my case seriously. I would highly recommend that everyone searches for a different attorney rather than choosing Mr. Gufford.

I hired Gufford for my divorce case. He was initially interested in my case but once he received my retainer he seemed very disinterested and even quite unknowledgeable about my case and didn't even remember what he had told me previously regarding a name change. It took him once 21 days to return ...a phone call and even then I had to beg his assistant for a call back for which she apologized for over and over for. I did not feel comfortable having him represent me. The bill he provided me was very vague and uninformative. He nor his staff gave updates on the billing (as I had asked), and only advised my retainer was used up "after" I changed lawyers. It took him several days to supply a final billing which had items on it that did not even pertain to me or were dated before I even met him. He said he fixed however since his retainers are non-refundable, even though he did not do the work, he would not credit me back. During one phone call he put me on hold advising he had to go to the bathroom (really?), for which I was billed for those minutes too. When I nicely asked him to deduct those minutes, his response asked me would I have rather he not relieve himself. He also used curse words in some of our conversations (but not toward me) which I did not find professional. His contract leaves a lot to be questioned, so make sure if considering his services to read it fully and understand it.

I had a terrible experience with Joe Gufford in my personal divorce case. He did nothing but take my retainer, run up a ridiculous bill, accomplish nothing then demand more money. His staff was rude and unhelpful and he was never available when I needed him. I have had no less that six attorneys wor...k for me over the last two years in various cases with fine results. I suggest seeking other legal help as there are plenty of other attorneys in Stuart that can make a positive difference for your case.