Mark Stephen Cochran

Cochran has the toolset of a good lawyer; that’s why I hired him. Where the great guy mentioned in the other reviews was, though, I never found out. I’m certainly no saint, but Cochran’s eagerness to win by money whipping my legal adversary was profoundly troubling. I was above board in my business d...ealings and wanted to proceed accordingly. Win fair and square. He didn’t seem to get it though, so I’ve moved on. If that’s the kind of representation you’re looking for then all I can say is how disappointed I am - in both of you.

I happened to stumble across Avvo and recognized Mr. Cochran from my divorce. I felt compelled to write a review because the negative review left is not the attorney I had. Mr. Cochran is honest and that is very important. My divorce was from an attorney so my ex made it take far longer than necessar...y and dragged out the proceedings. That is out of the attorney's control. If the other side is generating lots of paperwork it needs to be responded to, that's just how it is. Mr. Cochran is a stellar attorney and made a difficult process much easier. He's definitely a 10.

Divorce is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is in the lawyer's financial interest to avoid settlement. Once settled, they are off the client's payroll. In my case, the two lawyers, failed to bring the case to mediation in less than 8 months. Mr. Cochran did not seem to mind the delays, and he esse...ntially ignored my complaints about the delays. Tarrant county has plenty of mediators, but somehow, in my case, the lawyers failed to utilize their services. By then the paper war that they created drove costs beyond what is reasonable. Of course, the creation of issues and general aggravation caused by the delays, paper war, and expense, guaranteed failed mediation. In my case, the opposing lawyer convinced her client that she could not talk to me directly, and all communication had to be in the form of a letter posted through both law offices. This is one of the well known dirty tricks of divorce. Mr. Cochran didn’t seem to see this as a problem. Keep in mind that each letter cost around $300 to draft, and at least $150 to review. Each letter usually required a response. Nearly all of these letter were useless, and produced less effect that a simple phone call or email. The Cochran Law office had plenty of illnesses and vacations. The front desk changed hands no fewer than 3 times during my case. My advice to you ,if you cannot avoid divorce, is to handle it yourself if the case is not too complicated. In my case, there were no complicated issues. We only needed simple property division. Well, the property was eventually divided by a Judge, but each lawyer walked away with several years worth of my children’s college funds. The total in my case, was over $50k in legal fees, just to have a Judge split my retirement and house equity in a “just and fair” division. Again, I would say try to manage the divorce without lawyers. In my opinion they make matters worse, not better.