Robert B Buchanan

I hired this law firm and I paid $ 5000 upfront, initially I talked to one lawyer, but, after payment I was assigned to a different one with way less experience! My husband and I came to An agreement and settled the case in about a month and half time, so basically not a lot was done in my case at al...l as there were no disputes! My case ended October 3rd ! I received multiple invoices with unbelievable amounts and now even after ending the case they keep billing me and asking me to pay another$ 2000 on top of the $5000! I he worst part is they sent me a bill for temporary maintenance charges for NOV 11th way more than one month after ending my case! Go figure.. Rip off artists and money hungry! Someone needs to investigate this law firm and their overcharges and reimburse people who are cheated by them!

Withdrew from my case after spending more than what I originally was told I would have to. Zero communication throughout case. Spent many nights worrying about the status of my case, Irina, Robert, and Rebecca purposefully kept communication to a minimum to run up the bill. Highly recommend looking a...t any firm other than this one.

After 6 months, 2 court dates and $5000 in legal fees, Robert and his senior associate Renata Musial were unable to establish any visitation, custody, parenting time or child support agreements and withdrew themselves from our custody case. --- We arranged for a consultation and on-boarding with Ro...bert in November 2022 following a Petition for Parentage for my son in the Cook County Circuit Court. Robert initially assured us that with a $2500 retainer, he could use his expertise to get us visitation somewhere between 2 weeks to a month through the use of emergency visitation rights. After on-boarding, we later found out the following week that Robert was not going to actually be handling the case but instead, trusted us to his paralegals and senior associate Renata. They immediately scrapped the possibility of filing for emergency visitation and began working on financial reviews. It turns out that during this time, Renata had "assumed that opposing counsel would agree to paternity" and by New Years Eve, after realizing this was not the case, a paternity would need to be ordered (18 DAYS BEFORE COURT) that she claimed would be covered by the court fee waiver. After many visits at Daley Center, city clerks had to explain to her over the phone that the court fee waiver would not cover test. We had to go back to the DNA center once again the following week and finally pay out of pocket as it turned out that the legal team did not file the case as the fee-waiver approved judicial type. By the first court hearing January 20th, judge dismissed session as paternity had still not been established, resulting in wasted court appearance and zero progress two months after onboarding with Robert. By this time, retainer had been completely used on financial reviews that were not yet necessary due to unconfirmed paternity tests and Robert was requesting an additional $1600 in fees for work they had done. We should have jumped ship at this point but after many complaints, Robert reduced bill to $700 and apologized for mishaps. Our next court appearance was for March 27th and we figured that the positive paternity results would make smooth sailing. Instead, Renata and newest paralegals had requested that we re-visit the previously compiled/completed financial affidavits from months before, citing that too much time had gone by. This incurred an additional several hundred dollars and additional discovery requests from the opposing counsel, all of which could have been completed at once now rather than months in advance at the cost of missing paternity deadlines. A week before next hearing, Renata provided what she believed to be a good offer: 1.5 hours of supervised parenting time per week at a museum 50 miles away from both the mother and I, with the condition of 10-panel ($500) drug test despite no criminal or drug abuse history or evidence of such. We had to point out to Renata that not only is this offer absolutely insane, but Illinois drug test court order form itself requires "evidence of potential drug abuse pursuant to IL Rule 215 (a)" which she previously dismissed at not applicable. At next court appearance on March 27th, because I was sick with stomach ailments, my parents sat in on the zoom hearing. It lasted all but 5 minutes and per their witness, opposing counsel made a series of unsubstantiated allegations concerning potential drug abuse until the judge asked for evidence which they could not provide. Renata remained quiet entire time and provided absolutely no defense to accusations nor did she bring up potential visitation or parenting time despite fact that paternity had finally been established. Zero progress again and we received her withdrawal 2 days later. We appreciate Robert's corporate professionalism but his team's mismanagement and inexperience has cost us thousands of dollars, zero results and valuable parenting time.

I want to start off be saying to anyone considering hiring this firm to way your options and LOOK ELSE WHERE. The owner of the firm Mr Buchanon is very money hungry. I spent over 13-14k with this firm only to get negative results. Mr Buchanon personally texted my personal phone number demanding money... on two seperate occasions, and when I called him via phone his only explanation was that other client s had owed him money & how he couldn’t believe his clients. I inform the attorney that his bias and past experiences had to be mitigate and was not professional. During my experience with the firm counsel Irina was assigned to my case. I did not feel she had my best interest. Attorney Irina will go against her own clients, and she’s very passive and not aggressive enough, opposing counsels will run over her , and her only response would be too file numerous amount of pointless motions. Irina would also send me court dates that I could never attend, because I was not allowed into the zoom meetings, -and then she would call to discuss matters of what occurred in court but also charge me. Once again I didn’t feel my attorney or this firm had my best interest In the middle of my custody battle after Investing 13k-14k this firm got know where and had to fire these attorneys. In 7 months total I got child support and to see my children twice a month. So if your considering to hire these attorneys at this firm read your contract closely mr Buchanon will not verbally inform you that he requires a 1,000 minimum every month. Once again if your going through anything divorcée, custody etc.. this firm is money driven and will it have your best interest. Mr Buchanon has a real issue he message old clients and request that they post reviews to get him new clients. His intentions is not good as an attorney or a person.