David Alan Harley

I hired this attorney on October 31 and paid a retainer. By February 7, the only completed work was a single letter. Despite repeated assurances that he was “getting right on it,” no meaningful progress was made on my case. In December, I specifically asked whether he was too busy to handle my mat...ter due to ongoing delays, and he assured me he was not. However, after I terminated the representation, he claimed he had been extremely busy and had completed work that, to my knowledge, was never done. Communication was misleading, and the lack of progress was extremely frustrating. Based on my experience, I would not recommend hiring him if you expect timely action or transparency. I have documentation of our email exchanges that reflect this timeline. His disciplinary history is publicly available here: https://law.justia.com/cases/south-carolina/supreme-court/2022/28083.html. I encourage anyone considering hiring him to review it and make an informed decision.

I paid David a 5000.00 retainer and after accomplishing absolutely nothing I got 1000 dollars back. Constantly unable to get in touch with him. Claims to be in the hospital a lot. Everything seem to be a grey area with him. Very disappointed pretty much wasted 4000 dollars. I will be filing a compla...int with the SC bar.

Honestly, hiring Mr. Harley was one of the biggest mistakes in my life. He didn't have any intention to do anything on my case. He took my $6000, and did nothing for 2 month. After initial phone conversation Mr. Harley asked me for a $1000 to start working on my case. He promised me to email our Cont...ract and Information Release form right after the payment, insisting on the urgency to file. I paid immediately once we hang up. After my payment I haven't heard from him for 2 weeks. So, I decided to have a face to face meeting to sign those 2 forms. Mr. Harley forgot about our first meeting and asked to reschedule the day of the meeting. Again he promised to bring me the paperwork to sign to that meeting. I met with him in some random conference room. Mr. Harley told me that he just moved to this office building and that his name was not listed in the Directory yet. He didn't bring any paperwork for me to sign, asked for $5000, and promised to email me all the paperwork that evening. He also told me that he has a paralegal. Mr. Harley set several deadlines by which he will take certain steps. I didn't get any emails from him for another week after that meeting. Then Mr. Harley finally sent me an email saying that the paperwork is attached. I immediately emailed him back saying that there were no attachments. After another week I finally received promised for the1.5 month paperwork. One of the Forms had another client's name on the signature line. Mr. Harley was suppose to submit that form, but our School District was already closed for the Christmas break. Mr. Harley provided me with one excuse after another to why he haven't been working on my case: parents were sick, took vacation, Holidays, forgot we had an appointment. After the Holidays Mr. Harley disappeared for a week right when I needed a legal advice. At that point we were behind on every single deadline that Mr. Harley established for himself. I asked for my full retainer back in writing per our Contract. I was not able to get in contact with him, but I got in contact with his paralegal. The Lady told me that she was no longer Mr. Harley's paralegal. I was able to get in contact with 2 of Mr. Harley's other clients who were treated in the similar fashion. When I finally got in contact with Mr. Harley he told me in the recorded conversation that he had been sick, felling better and ready to start working on my case. He also admitted not having a paralegal. I told him that I terminated our contract a week ago, before he got sick. Mr. Harley said that he worked on my case for 7.5 hours and deducted that from my retainer. He didn't provide me with any billing or accounting statement to justify that charge. He simply wrote on the check "minus 7.5 hr". And it took me a month to get that check that I cannot even cash, because that would mean that I agree to his charge against my retainer. And such a behavior with clients seems to be systematic. He promises to handle the case, takes money, does nothing, provides excuse after the excuse, charges for "work and time" without providing any billing or accounting statements. He is trying to use his sicknesses as an excuse. But, I terminated our Contract before he got sick for failure to advance my case for 2 month, dishonesty and failure to contact me in timely manner. Now, instead of working on my case I have to work on my case of stolen retainer. After some digging I found out that Mr. Harley is one person firm. Mr. Harley doesn't have an actual office, just several PO Boxes. His upstate office located at his parent's house. Don't be like me, don't get scammed by this person.

David has represented our son for 6 years. He has guided us with our son's special education needs throughout the process. He's probably attended 17 to 20 IEP meetings and pushed the school into doing what they originally refused. He's been available for us after hours and early in the morning. We'v...e spent numerous calls with him over 1 hour. Our son would have suffered without his help. He was sick for a period but kept us informed the whole time. We never missed a deadline or meeting. He will be my son's lawyer through College. Highly recommend.

I retained Mr. Harley in Dec 2017 and Jan 2018 for two separate cases involving employment related disputes/issues. Mr. Harley took a retainer of $2500 for one case and $3000 for the other case, he stated these were needed to hire a Private Investigator. Mr. Harley hired an investigator after many... months of my questioning what progress was being made, was anything being done regarding the two separate cases,, and I received one excuse after another. First he was on vacation, then his kid was in college needing help, then he was ill, then he was in court, he had more excuses and refused to provide an accounting statement for either case. I contacted the Private Investigator myself and was informed that he did not even bother to pay the Private Investigator and suspended all work due to non-payment. Mr. Harley filed one case wrong and it was dismissed, the other case he NEVER FILED !!! He simply took money and did nothing to further the case. When confronted with this he stated he would refund the retainers, this was in November of 2018, still waiting for a refund. I am now faced with filing a complaint with the SC Board, an possibly suing for our the retainers, the problem is he is a ghost, moved out of his rented home in Charleston, fled to some other area, cannot locate him.