My daughter and I met with this attorney concerning serious child abuse of my grandchildren by a care provider. I had searched the internet for a law firm that specialized in this type of case, and that would be strong in court. Susan Butler's website was written so well and promised such strong le...gal support to clients, that I called her office. I explained to the legal aide who answered the phone that we lived quite some distance from the office, I explained the situation in detail, and asked if this is something that Attorney Butler could help us with. The legal aide assured me very strongly that yes, this was exactly what this attorney does, and to definitely meet with her and explain the case, then retain her services.
I did schedule an appointment, and we prepared detailed documentation of what we wanted Susan Butler to see.
On the day of the appointment, we arrived a bit early. The attorney came into the office about the time our appointment was scheduled, but instead of meeting with us, we could hear her in the next office making telephone calls and actually angrily yelling at various people on the phone for 40 minutes past the time of our appointment. The people who had an appointment after ours arrived while we were waiting, and also took a seat to wait.
When we were finally called into her office, we began to take out our case materials, but Susan Butler started yelling at us not to bother, that she had reviewed the paperwork that we filled out upon arival at her office, and she couldn't help us with our case. She continued to yell at us over the next twenty minutes as we attempted to explain to her that we had traveled to see her based on her legal aide telling us that she could help, and that this is exactly the kind of case that her website indicated that she specialized in. We showed her photographs and documents, and she yelled as if we were hostile witnesses that she was cross-examining over every piece of paper we attempted to show her. She demanded to know how we obtained the photographs, as if we had stolen them or had otherwise done something wrong. She refused to review documents, actually pushing or throwing them back at us across her desk, stating that she could not help us. She said that her legal aide wouldn't know what type of case she would accept, and that we shouldn't have taken her legal aide's word on that and scheduled with her.
After twenty long minutes of verbally abusing us, she actually expected us to pay her $150 for sitting there waiting for an hour to see her, then being yelled at and horribly criticized for another twenty minutes. I did explain to her, politely but insistently, that we had paid to travel there based on the word of her legal aide, and was it really right to charge us $150 to have her tell us she couldn't help us? She finally gave in, very angrily, and stormed out into the waiting room to tell her aide that we didn't need to pay her. She came back into the office and told us, sarcastically, that her time is worth money, and she had lost money by meeting with us, and so we should consider this "her donation to the cause". We could still hear her carrying on as we left the office.
This was a terrible experience, and I could not and would not recommend this attorney to anyone. We were innocent people seeking help for two abused children, and she abused us. If she has forms to fill out, as we did upon arrival, which would tell her whether or not she would accept a case, then she should have mailed them to be returned to her and reviewed by her, prior to our having to drive to her office and go through the ordeal that we did.