Joan-Marie Kettell Dean

I hired Mrs. Joan Marie Dean to represent me in my divorce case, was impressed with her at our initial meeting and felt confident in her ability. Problems occurred during the first week when she was suppose to be in court representing me before the judge; Mrs. Dean stated she had a conflict and coul...dn't appear so she had another lawyer attend for her. The stand in attorney did a really good job and all Mrs. Dean had to do was to appear in front of the judge two days later (court date was on a Friday, she was to see the Judge on the following Monday). She didn't bother to show up and represent me, and I was out of my home for an additional 80 days. I tried repeatedly to get in touch with her by calling and sending emails to her of which she didn't bother replying to. I was finally forced to hire another attorney to represent me. When I emailed Mrs. Dean the information that I had obtained other legal counsel, she immediately called me while attending court in another county, wanting to know why I had acquired other counsel and was obviously upset. Mrs. Dean then actually had the audacity to show up at the court hearing my new counsel had scheduled in less than two days from being hired. Knowing she could no longer conjure up charges for services not provided, she billed me for every penny of the large retainer I had paid upfront and then added an additional 1/3 in fraudulent charges. Be forewarned that Mrs. Dean does not reply or respond to emails or phone messages and bills $30.00 (10% of a $300 an hour fee) to her clients for her assistant to receive any type of these communications. Bottom line is - do yourself a favor and look around before securing legal services in Huntsville, I am now having to go through the headache of trying to recoup some of my money from a lawyer that adamantly refused to represent me in a time of dire need.