Stephen P. Karns

Last year my husband was pulled in and questioned by CID. His case was severe and there was undeniable evidence and he was facing an OTH discharge. We hired Mr. Karns and he began to work IMMEDIATELY! He and his Paralegal Rob worked HARD on my husbands case. He (and Rob) were always great about getti...ng back to us fast if we had questions. My husband was appointed a very mediocre TDS attorney who was supposed to work along side Mr. Karns and ultimately seemed to do more harm than she did helping.. Mr. Karns flew to Colorado and met with myself and my husband (as well as our TDS attorney) and went over the case and strategy. He was great about keeping my husband and myself in the loop through this entire year of going back and forth between the Army. Today my husband had his board hearing and because of Mr. Karns aggressiveness and professionalism the board decided in my husbands favor and he is being retained! My husband was originally facing an OTH discharge and Mr. Karns secured his future. He was well worth the money spent and I would recommend him to anyone!

I cannot be specific enough with this guy. All cases was lost. Never defended me. Had his paralegal write paperwork and did not help with my case at all. My unit still had there way with me. Now bring up my case and I’ll respond in social media. I had to fire him . Paid him 6600 dollars to do nothing... but be friendly with the battalions legal brigade.

I hired this guy 2 years ago for a case. He was aggressive at first and kept good contact with me throughout my case. Whenever I asked him to write something to my command or help me word something, he would always say, "What do you think you should write". I understand the guy can't write for you, b...ut 2 years later and $2500 poorer, I wish I would have demanded a lot more. I really don't feel like he made any difference in my case, except for give me a false peace of mind that I had a lawyer at all. Like all accused, I was innocent, but was still punished. In the end Mr. Karns simply told me I was lucky to get the verdict I did. In retrospect, there was a lot more he could have done, but since my punishment was not that bad, he just didn't. In the end, I made a major mistake hiring Karns, and am only writing this review because I now need a lawyer to sue my brokerage company and came across him as the "top military lawyer"--I hope for the militaries sake that there is someone better.

I cannot recommend Mr. Karns after the experience I had with him as my attorney. Mr. Karns was hired to represent me in my pending case, and prior to paying him, he told me a couple things we could do to initiate the best possible defense. After he was paid, he started my defense case but subsequentl...y, nothing else happened. For context, I had a positive urinalysis and was told we could do a civilian polygraph and hair follicle test to prove my innocence. I only did a hair follicle test, and that was after reminding Mr. Karns about it and he told me to go ahead and get one. After I found out my hair would not be long enough to cover the length of time, where it was presumed I consumed the banned substance, I notified Mr. Karns and his response was "Well we can't use that". If you're an "aggressive" lawyer and have represented multiple drug cases, wouldn't you know this? Mr. Karns also didn't do anything to fight my charges. He did not contact legal and try to fight to drop or lessen the charges. He had his paralegal type up my defense and that was about it. I called around to multiple civilian attorneys who specialize in representing service members. They all disagreed with what Mr. Karns "defense" strategy was and one even said he is a "volume lawyer" that will take your money and no very little for you. If anything, plead out. Like you, I went off his website, reviews, and spoke with him myself and hired him off his reputation. I was very mistaken for doing so. I promptly terminated my professional working relationship with him and hired a FREE TDS attorney. My TDS attorney did more for me than Mr. Karns did and they only had 7 business days to put together my defense. Suffice to say, I beat my case and it was heavily accredited to my TDS attorneys arguments. They even called legal and tried to get them to drop the case, which ultimately worked. Long story short, hire a TDS attorney and save your money, or hire someone else. He isn't the "aggressive" lawyer who will be "in your corner".

This lawyer took my $6500 and did the bare minimum to defend my case. Once he received the hefty payment, he left everything up to me and his unfriendly paralegal. Even worse, this lawyer did not ensure my case was finalized before ending legal representation. I would not recommend this lawyer for an...y services. Finally, if you want to be treated like a human being and feel like your case actually matters, then I would highly advise seeking legal advice elsewhere.