Zachary Thomas Townsend

We were fighting for custody of my stepson from 2017-2018. Everything about our case should have been a slam dunk for us to get custody of my stepson. Although there was a police report that WOULD have been enough that proved my husband's ex was detrimental to my stepson, the police report was withhe...ld from us by Attorney Townsend for the majority of the time that we were in court fighting for custody of my stepson. We spent an additional 9+ months in court (which we only found out that Attorney Townsend had a police report that could have ended the court case after we received Attorney Townsend's bill) which caused my stepson to go through traumas that we are still dealing with 4 years later. This all could have been stopped if Attorney Townsend would have been honest about whether he had a police report that we had repeatedly asked him if he had. Every time we asked if he had the report, he denied that there was such a report. We only hope that he will not do the same to other families in the Rockford area that are fighting for the best interest of their child(ren).

About a year ago I hired this lawyer to help me recover and protect my young daughters trapped by a known violent abusive felon in Wheaton. I knew going in, that DuPage corruption was in play, and we might not succeed. I didn't ask him to guarantee success, just do everything possible. During the cou...rse of his representation, we paid nearly a hundred thousand dollars to find protect and save my daughters from a nightmare. In the end, his office accomplished nothing that proved the girls were alive. During this time of his representation (and his astonishingly weak in court performances), we got a fraudulent restraining order on the girls beloved Grandmothers funeral, and a denial of all contact including phone calls, despite zero allegations of harm by me (the Father) to anyone anywhere. In the end (today) its became plainly obvious the only things he really cared about, was soaking my elderly father desperate and grieving with the loss of his wife of 60 years, and only hoping to re establish contact with his lost beloved granddaughters trapped in sexual exploitation and violence by corruption in DuPage. Throughout this time I pleaded with Townsend to take offensive legal action to protect these children, which he refused to do at every single turn, claiming those actions were not legally justified. A two min search on Google, revealed to me those actions to save these girls were enshrined in State and Federal Law. He lied to me about our legal rights and refused to file legally justified motions to protect the children. In the end all he could muster was to advise me to waive my constitutional rights, the ones he was hired to protect. 5 months after Covid hit, he advised me he would no longer meet wirh me in person no matter what safety precautions breaching his representation agreement, and then withdrew from representation leaving my innocent daughters exposed, because I brought it up to him. Today he refused to address the Judges systematic bias trapping children in violence with felons because he was scared of the Judge. He has knowledge but a bloated staff which I believe warps his view of responsibilities to protect his clents rights, and proved to me he was only interested in covering his own behind and churning an old grieving grandfather out of his family assets, right before he cut and ran leaving little girls trapped with a known violent felon. Words cannot explain how bad he hurt my family for $ while refusing to honor his representation contract.

I hired Zach under a contract for my divorce case. I was told we could get everything accomplished rather quickly. In 3 months my retainer was spend in 3 court status hearings before I was sent to billing for an additional monetary supplement. Was not worth the 6 K retainer for him to go to court ...and say no change to the judge. I was grateful he was able to file but abhorred the money hungriness shown with zero results in 3 months. Ultimately changed lawyers. At the charged rate It would have taken me over $42,000 for 21 appearances to accomplish nothing by saying no change your honor. Can't even imagine what the cost would have been to go to trial as ultimately 2 trials were associated with my case before divorce was finalized. Ultimately changed to another lawyer who at least did follow-up and more than stand in front of judge and say no change and schedule himself back in court within the month.

I hired Attorney Townsend to handle what I thought would be an amicable, civil, simple case between two people who just needed to get the paperwork done for custody and child support. It quickly became evident that my ex's goal was to drag out the case as long as he could as a means of having as muc...h contact as possible with me after our breakup. Attorney Zach Townsend was the perfect lawyer for this sort of case. He was calming, reassuring, and always able to de-escalate tense emotional developments in my case. I had to attend court ordered mediation and I felt so completely prepared and ready to make important decisions to move forward when we were stuck. He was also very responsive - I called or texted him several times at odd hours for advice because my ex didn't show up for exchanges and involved police in his attempts to bully and intimidate me. He answered and provided quick and helpful advice and reassured me that I was doing everything I was supposed to per my court orders and parenting plan. Many of my friends have complained that their attorneys have been most concerned with extending the case and maximizing their payments. I felt the opposite - Attorney Townsend was focused on taking care of my problems as efficiently as possible. I can't recommend him enough.