Terris Caton Harris

This lawyer is actually knowledgeable of the laws and regulations that pertain to personal injury cases in the state of Mississippi. However, he lacks the appropriate and necessary customer service and communication skills as it pertains to keeping the client informed throughout the pretrial and tria...l process. Many times he "jumped the gun" with handling matters in my personal injury case without consulting me or my husband first. The client has a say in how his/her case is handled, and the lawyer must adhere to legal and ethical rules which are a part of his fiduciary duties while representing a client to avoid being sued for legal malpractice. In December 2011, my husband and I came in for a consultation at Sweet and Associates with Mr. Harris. Because I already had copies of my medical records, the only thing the paralegal/legal secretary had to do was make copies of my records. Mr. Harris told me that my records would be sent to a medical expert and that I should expect the expert opinion to be received by late January 2012 or early February 2012 and that the paralegal/legal secretary would be calling me after that time. February 2012 arrived, and there was no response from the firm. To be considerate of the holidays, I didn't attempt to follow up with him until mid February 2012. When I made my first attempt to follow up with him regarding the medical expert review, I placed a telephone call to the office and left a message with the receptionist. Two weeks later, no response. So, I sent an email. Two weeks after sending the email, still no response. So, I attempted to call the office again. I was told that Mr. Harris was not in the office. About eight weeks later in April 2012, Mr. Harris informed me that the experts had given an opinion that was equivalent to malpractice. Instead of Mr. Harris arranging for us to come in to discuss the expert's findings and have us sign a contract, he proceeded to serve the claim letter to the Jackson area hospital without our knowledge or consent. We were not called in to meet with him and the head lawyer who owns the firm until after the claim letter was sent out. That really left me feeling furious because we legally had not signed a contract prior to the claim letter being sent out and that is very unprofessional. On top of that, I was in the dark about what the experts found to be wrong with me. Despite this, my husband told me to just stick it out because the head lawyer has been winning cases for 30 something years. So, they proceeded to file the lawsuit. Once the lawsuit got filed, Mr. Harris continued to not keep me informed. I was not expecting any overnight results because lawsuits can drag on for years, but any competent lawyer will keep his client informed at various intervals throughout the pretrial and trial process. The entire process was very stressful on top of me coping with the horrible negligence I was subjected to by the neurologist, surgical team, and hospital. I was so relieved when the process was over. I actually ended up missing my first required physical examination with the medical expert because Mr. Harris did not let me know about the examination appointment until the last minute and it had to be rescheduled. Because of this, the medical expert got upset me with me and I had no control over not being informed of the examination appointment. In the end, I was able to obtain more than enough to pay off my medical bills and expenses but the agony of being treated so poorly was not worth it. I would never seek legal representation from this lawyer ever again.

He knows the law but does not care about his clients. He represented me in 2014, and I would never choose him to represent me again. He displays no degree of professionalism. He does not return calls or emails. Customer service is not a priority for him. He represented me in a personal injury case in... 2014. He tried to control everything and he met with the defendants behind my back. I felt that his behavior was not appropriate for a lawyer who is supposed to care about his client. It's bad enough to be injured by a negligent doctor and even worse to know that your lawyer doesn't care about you but only recovery. I do not recommend this lawyer unless you want to be treated badly. I'm not trying to make him look bad or incompetent, but customer service is so important to stay in business.

In 2010 I lost my husband as a result of medical negligence. Mr. Harris represented me and my 3 daughters. He told us it would take 8 weeks for his experts to get back to them about my husband's records. It was exactly 6 months and 16 days before we got the opinion. During that time, mr. Harris faile...d to keep us informed. We would call once a month and send emails but we never got a response from him. After he chose to represent us, we were able to get a nice settlement but it was difficult experience due to lack of communications from mr. Harris. Lawyers must keep clients in the know about what is going on

A couple of years ago, Attorney Harris represented me in a personal injury case. Although he won my case, the entire process was very stressful because Attorney Harris did not keep me informed. He never would call me back. I always had to call the office to find out what was going on. It's hard enoug...h knowing that your life is completely altered behind a medical mistake but even harder when your lawyer shows no compassion. It's not just about winning, it's about being there for your client through a difficult process.

Three years ago, Attorney Harris represented me in a personal injury case against a healthcare entity. When I went to Attorney Harris for representation, I did not have all of my medical records. So, the law firm got them for me. Attorney Harris informed me that it would take 8 weeks to hear back fro...m his expert. It ended up taking 4 months. During that time, I was never informed of how far in the evaluation process, the expert had gotten. I had to call the office to check on the case for myself because Attorney Harris never returned my calls. Once the expert determined I had a good case, I signed a contract. Mr. Harris filed the lawsuit and won, but he did not keep me informed like he should. I do understand that no lawyer is perfect because nobody is perfect, but lawyers do need to keep clients informed throughout the process. Establishing rapport and being kind to your client is importance. A little kindness and compassion and good customer service goes a long way.