Terry Fawell

I hired Terry Fawell in March. Had a court date in March. She reached out to me the day of and told me not to come. No need to be present. Before hiring, she knew all about the case. She knew the parties involved and we had a plan for court. The day of when I was told no need to be present, she later... called me and informed me that not only did she push my court date out with a continuance, three months out, but the plan we discussed went totally out the window!!! I've emailed her secretary and made more than enough phone calls asking for a meeting at her office to discuss court, the way she is handling my case, and the plan goinh forward. Her secretary canceled my appointment each and every time. My questions were never answered. Prior to hiring her she seemed knowledgeable and eager to help me. The minute I hired her, her whole persona changed. When the date of my court date finally arrived, she acted as if the case was so overwhelming and too much for her. She said she didn't know certain things which she did bc they were well explained prior to. Even if she was telling the truth, she had the three months she pushed my court date out to contact me and tell me So. Her professional persona is well below average as well as her competence and skill. If you care about your case and anyone involved in it, DO NOT hire her!! I wish I listened to the reviews. The site reviews had higher ratings so I asked avvo about it, and was in a desperate situation so i kept her. Worst mistake ever. The reviews on here hold validity. Don't find out the hard way. Google her name and see nothing but negative reviews from any site that lists her work. Use caution and really do your homework. Don't look at the reviews here and think they are from pissed off clients that things didn't go the way we wanted. They didn't of course. But the reviews are definitely accurate I've found out the hard way.

I found Ms. Fawell’s services severely lacking in: 1. Quality – never explained the overall divorce process after I repeatedly asked her to; didn’t seem to know the answers to some direct & easy questions that she should know; was never prepared or up to speed on my case during our 1:1 conversations...; repeatedly made ridiculously false statements (i.e. “a car’s mileage doesn’t significantly affect a its value”), demonstrated the worst negotiating skills I have ever witnessed during a 4-way meeting with my ex-wife and her competent attorney, and again during negotiations prior to Prove Up, etc.) 2. Timeliness – asked for documents by a certain date but was repeatedly told no she couldn’t do it by then; made promises to have things completed by a certain date that she failed to keep; unwilling to communicate with me outside of 9-5 weekdays; cancelled appointments as I was already in route to her office; based on conversations with her admin appeared to work significantly less than 40 hours per week; simple wording changes in documents took a week since she doesn’t type or use a computer; etc. 3. Accuracy – granted, I am a CPA and have high expectations, but failing to understand the financial info I gave her is one thing; failing to ask the right questions to gain that understanding and then messing up documents being shared with the opposition is another thing altogether; I had to essentially write and revise my own MSA myself under tight timelines created by her procrastination, creating and tying out all numbers myself, then 2 days before Prove Up I found an $8K typo in my ex-wife’s favor in a number I had calculated and given to her – this is incompetence, plain and simple 4. Integrity – a day after my case was signed, stamped, and closed by the Court, I fired her in an email, telling her “don’t do another thing on my behalf”; she charged me $22.50 to peck out a bitter response to that email, then filed a Motion to Withdraw from a case that was already closed and charged me another $234.38 for documents and court time; I asked for an accounting of my retainer since I had not seen a statement in a few months, 2 days after sending me a statement in the mail, she filed 31 page Petition for Attorney Fees against her former client, and charged me another $225 for that “service”. I am considering submitting a request for investigation to Illinois’ Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission for these actions which I consider unethical. Do yourself a favor and steer clear of Ms. Fawell.

I HIRED THIS LADY IN FEBRUARY TO HELP WITH A REMOVAL AND INCREASE IN CHILD SUPPORT. THE FATHER OF MY CHILD HAD FILLED SEVERAL OF HIS OWN PETITIONS. THE FIRST DAY OF COURT SHE WAS OVER AN HOUR LATE. EXTREMELY UNPREPARRED, SAID MY LAST NAME WRONG AND SHE COULDNT REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE STATE THAT I WA...S WANTING TO LIVE IN. EVERY COURT DATE WAS A DISASTER. SHE WAS NEVER PREPARRED. IT WAS VERY EMBARRASING. EVERYTIME YOU CALL HER SHE WAS NEVER ARROUND AND NEVER RETURNED THE PHONE CALL. SHE USED HER FLUNKY OF AND LEGAL SECRETARY TO DO ALL HER WORK. I ACTUALLY HAD MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH HER THEN WITH MS. FAWELL. I ACTUALLY FILL FOR HER SECRETARY BECAUSE SHE CAUGHT IT FROM ME SO IM SURE SHE DID FROM OTHERS. LONG STORY SHORT THIS LADY IS STUPID AND OLD AND UNPROFESSIONAL. IF YOU NEED YOUR DOG WALKED DONT CALL THIS LADY, IF YOU NEED HELP WITH YOUR CHILDREN DO NOT TRUST HER. SHE WILL MAKE CATCH A FELONY CASE FOR SOMETHNG YOU DIDNT DO THATS HOW UNPREPARRED SHE IS. SHE MIGHT CONFUSE YOU WITH ANOTHER CLIENT SMH . SHE DOES NOT HAVE YOUR BACK AT ALL. IVE WENT MONTHS WITHOUT TALKING TO HER. AND ALMOST A YEAR LATER IM STILL FIGHTING A CASE AND LOOKING FOR A NEW LAWYER.

Biggest Mistake I Ever Made! Boy, I wished I would have read these reviews BEFORE I retained Terry Fawell to handle my legal situation. I should have known when they tried to raise the retainer by $500.00. All the reviews here are true. Biggest waste of money I ever spent. After numerous phone ca...lls only to have her secretary make excuses for her, I only had two 15 minute phone conversations with her in two months. The last phone conversation we had she said she would get a hold of the other lawyer and get back to me. After three weeks of nothing I fired her. Then her secretary tells me she has to go to court to withdraw from the case and that’s going to cost me. She didn’t even have the courtesy to call me when I fired her. She needs to read her Statement of Clients Rights that I had to sign, specifically #3 “The counsel will keep the client reasonably informed about the status of representation and will promptly respond to reasonable requests for information”. I wonder how long its going to take to get what’s left of my retainer back. Avoid hiring her at all cost. I would give her a zero rating, but they don't have that option.