Christopher J. Harrington

Hired Chris to get Right of First Refusal because my ex decided to put our daughter in latchkey instead of dropping her off at my house in the mornings to get ready as he had been since she started school (we have 50/50 custody). Chris told me that the courts don't recognize Right of First Refusal a...nd we would need to "attack" the father instead. Had a lengthy discussion about everything, emailed Chris all the information he was looking for and then he would call a week later and ask me the same things that we have already discussed. More than once I would have to tell him that we already talked about this or it was in the email which he clearly never read. Before filing the motion had another lengthy discussion going over all the points, and then he informed me that he didn't include all of them after he filed the motion because he had a "strategy". Multiple times throughout this process I asked Chris if we could just ask for Right of First Refusal (even on the day we were in court) and he kept telling me no. When we finally got in front of the judge, Chris looked like a deer in headlights, as if he had never been in court before, and the judge had to prompt him multiple times to present our case until opposing counsel finally spoke up and took off with it. It took the court counselor, referee and judge seconds to deny everything because "dad can make any decision he wants to in regards to childcare during his time". Since this time I have contacted other attorneys and every one of them have said yes, the court not only recognizes Right of First Refusal, it is great for a high conflict case such as mine and I am entitled to it. However, since I was denied this motion it would be unlikely that I would be able to get it now. Unfortunately my daughter and I are left in a situation where she doesn't want to go to latchkey, there is increased conflict with my ex as a result, and no way to fix anything now. When all was said and done, Chris of course charged me for all the conversations we had with information he didn't use, emails he didn't read (and he didn't even bring all of them to court) and then he asked for money beyond the retainer for a case that was not winnable the way it was presented. Save your money.