Thomas E. Trahan

Tom was retained to handle a contentious divorce case for me in which custody was disputed. I am absolutely not a high-maintenance client, and I gave Tom plenty of time and space to do his job. However, without exception, he failed to do his job at every possible juncture. On a personal level, I t...ruly think Tom is a very nice guy. But I can not overstate how woefully poor and unprofessional his representation was. I am well aware that despite the best efforts of an attorney, a bad outcome can occur. That is absolutely NOT the case in this situation. For reasons that still escape me, Tom consistently refused to put forth any effort whatsoever on my case. - I could not reach him or get a call back for literally months at a time, despite numerous voice messages and emails. Each time he sincerely apologized and committed to staying in contact, only to disappear again. - He consistently failed to respond to opposing counsel. My ex called me on more than one occasion to ask if we were trying to play some sort of game because he would never respond to any of their correspondence or their formal pleadings and motions. - He failed to provide me with any documentation in my case despite numerous requests. - He completely failed to keep me informed about anything that was ever happening in my case. I often had to look on the county website to find out about hearings that he had missed in my case. - My kids got to see a process server come to our house during dinner and serve me with a Motion to Enforce because he had failed to file a very simple responsive document that I was completely unaware of, because of course he hadn't let me know. - Tom committed to filing a number of different motions and pleadings on my behalf, every single one of which was never filed. - On the first day I walked into his office, I told him very clearly that I wanted to exercise my right to have my case to be heard by a jury (rather than a judge). In nearly every subsequent conversation I reminded him to file a jury demand. Apparently he never did and my case went before a judge. - My daughter signed a designation stating that she wanted me to be her primary custodian (a monumentally difficult and heart-wrenching decision for her to make), and Tom failed to file or produce that document properly, so it was never even entered or considered. That document should have been a cornerstone in my case. Unfortunately, I could go on with even more, but hopefully I've made my point. I truly wish that this was an instance where I simply got a bad outcome and in my frustration decided to blame my lawyer. At least then I could eventually come to peace with how things turned out. But sadly his ineptitude is genuine. The one person who was supposed to advocate for me and my daughters was the one who ended up doing more damage than anyone else. And my girls have to live with that for the rest of their lives. My recommendation is that if you have anything other than the most basic, cookie-cutter case (and even then you're taking quite a chance), you should run, not walk, from this attorney. If I could assess negative stars, I would. But 1 star is as low as the scale goes.