Bert Whitehead IV's Reviews

Avvo Review Score

4.2 /5.0

42 Client Reviews

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 reviews | Litigation

Posted by anonymous | February 15, 2023 | Hired Attorney | Litigation

Property case that is in the family name for 74 years.

Mr. Whithehead don't wast your money he's a loser. In many ways . He was our attorney for 3 plus years. Over that period of time unlimited phone calls may 5 times. He never called on his own or asked any questions. We paid him for a trail where we could talk. We never got to say a word on zoom .... The paper work I got back was just and oral argument that maybe last 1 hour. Mr Whitehead had surveys good and bad and exhibits we sent him before the Zoom argument Mr Whitehead calls a know all attorney here Said I could of won if Mr Whitehead would of knew what he was doing. Plus my surveyor attorney wrote Mr Whitehead a nasty letter the State investigation seen it also . Mr Whitehead made me pay for taxes and a dollar for and dead autumn olive bush In Michigan Now autumn olive are against the law to sell or transplant and etc. A deed autumn olive was the only thing I cut. Plus looking at the tax papers the other attorney was cheaper and better. The state of Michigan Court of Appeals said there was several things in the case that was not brought up. Again we was there and could not talk only Mr Whitehead Our league only advisor. And a loser

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Bert Whitehead

Replied last February 15, 2023

Hi. I am not surprised that this client wrote a poor review, but only because he was not happy with the outcome, and not because we did anything less than an excellent job. At a very affordable cost compared to other law firms (who would have cost well over $20k for the entire case and appeal, and we cost a fraction of that) we took the case through every phase of his defense to keep a very tiny and remote portion of his very large farm property that was the subject of a land survey dispute with a neighbor. At the end of the day, the other party had superior surveys, the lower court and Appeals court felt the law favored the other party's position and surveys, and it is not true that any argument was missed in our appeal, nor did the Appeals court say anything was missed. In a case like this, there will always be a winning side and a losing side, and the losing side will often then feel that their attorney was the problem when in fact many times, as is with this case, the client's problem was that the law and facts were simply not on their side, despite a valiant argument to the contrary. Given how many cases and appeals I have won (many), I am confident in how we handled this case, at much lower costs than typical attorneys. Thank you for the ability to respond.

Posted by anonymous | May 27, 2020 | Hired Attorney | Litigation

Divorce

If I could give a negative rating I would. Bert is a great talker yet his ability to follow through was completely missing. After paying his fee upfront, providing him with copies of all financial records assets debts I prepared served interrogatories filed and prepared most all legal documents. ...He failed to show up for my first hearing calling me the Saturday prior to the Monday hearing saying his staff didn’t put it on his calendar so I would have to represent myself as well he did not file notice of appearance as required by the courts for 3 weeks after Our agreement and my PAYMENT saying he was really busy. At trial he showed up empty handed no docs no case information calling me 20 mins before I had to leave my home in order to make it to court on time requesting me to bring docs which I had already provided to him more than 4 weeks prior. His familiarity of MI Case law and court litigation was non existent. All in all he is one attorney to run the other way. He takes advantage of the low income who are at their lowest.

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Bert Whitehead

Replied last May 27, 2020

This person did not provide a name, and I am not sure who this is or how long ago this was. We have not had "trials" for months now due to pandemic, and I have never showed up to any "trial" with no documents. Without knowing who it is, it is difficult to properly respond. However, clearly this client was not happy with the results of his case and for that, I do regret. There are always two sides to any story, but I can't actually give any more details without knowing who this was. Even if I knew who it was, I wouldn't use this as an opportunity to criticize a former client. I do acknowledge that sometimes mistakes have been made, and perhaps there were mistakes in this case, such as with not entering our appearance timely or putting his or her first hearing on our calendar so we could attend the first hearing. I can assure that if we did not attend, then we also did not charge for the hearing. I can only say that this person's experience was apparently not a good one, and for that I do apologize. However, this person's experience is also clearly NOT the experience of 99% of my clients who have loved our services, felt that I was an extremely knowledgeable and competent family law (and other type of law) attorney, and most of our business is based on referrals. I will continue to try to do better, improve our services and capability to serve clients, fix mistakes, ensure new clients do not experience any of the problems of prior clients, and will continue our mission to provide free legal advice and affordable legal help to lower- and moderate-income people. That is our mission, and I do not agree at all that I take advantage of the low income who are at their lowest; quite the opposite. And although this person likely did pay substantially less for our services (generally 40-60% less costs than typical legal services), he or she clearly did not get the value that he or she expected, and for that I'm sorry. I do hope we can help this client again and make it up to them, and that other prospective clients will give us a chance to give them the kind of experience, value, and professionalism that thousands of our other clients have experienced, including hundreds who have given us very positive reviews. I do appreciate the feedback, though, and have shared with my staff so that we can ensure that we are doing everything we can to give the best service possible, be the most prepared for any hearing or trial, and to help our clients achieve their legal and personal goals in life. I wish this client the best in the future, and I do personally apologize for any of our failures; we will do our best to never repeat them. Thank you.

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Bert Whitehead IV's Lawyer Endorsements

Endorse Bert

Chelsea Rebeck

Family lawyer | Nov 23

Relationship: Worked together on matter

"Bert and I have worked together on several cases. His passion for helping his clients makes him an outstanding attorney. I highly recommend him."

Jillian Hindo

Business lawyer | Sep 23

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"I endorse this lawyer. Bert is hardworking and dedicated. I would highly recommend him."

Aaron Shahan

Divorce and separation lawyer | May 21

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"Through Access Legal Care, PLLC, Mr. Whitehead is able to provide exceptional legal services to all residents of Michigan at a fair and reasonable price. His dedication to improve the practice in this regard is highly admirable. For that reason, I endorse Mr. Whitehead."

Madana Hermiz

Family lawyer | Apr 09

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"I endorse this lawyer. I have worked with Mr. Whitehead on numerous occasions and have seen how passionate he is about what he does. He truly cares about helping people and is a great person to have on your side."

Evan Oshan

Chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyer | Jan 26

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"I endorse this lawyer."

Nadine Jett

Family lawyer | Nov 12

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"I endorse this lawyer. This lawyer's contributions to this site are invaluable. I happily endorse this lawyer's work, ability and charity to those asking for advice. Further, I like to endorse good lawyers, because I find the AVVO rating system to be dishonest and corrupt. Frequently, disgruntled litigants on the opposing side (not your clients) will bash a lawyer on this site, pretending to be "your" client. When this situation is brought to AVVO attention, Avvo refuses to do anything to investigate and remove the false, slanderous "client" reviews. AVVO is a mean petty internet blog site trying to make money off of lawyers, and does not care if the public receives truthful information."

Joseph Schodowski

Unknown lawyer | Sep 26

Relationship: Friend

"I endorse this lawyer."

James Poniewierski

Unknown lawyer | Aug 05

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"I endorse this lawyer. Attorney Bert Whitehead IV is a great attorney. He is able to provide significant legal services at an affordable rate. I have worked for him and I also feel comfortable sending my own clients to him."

Howard Lewis

Family lawyer | Jul 29

Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community

"I endorse this lawyer. Attorney Whitehead is an outstanding attorney with an exceptional reputation. He is a strong and zealous advocate for his clients and a credit to the legal profession. I highly recommend his legal services."

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