Barbara A. Cole

She handled my divorce, which was quite a horrible experience for me and my daughter. Personally, I think it was all about the money. First, she never told me she was out of Dallas and only flew into Kerrville on occasion. When I confronted her about it, she insisted she told me right away. I would n...ever have hired her had I known she wasn't local to me as I wanted this divorce done as quickly as possible. That didn't happen. She dragged it on for almost 2 years, waiting forever to demand a response from opposing counsel (who was dragging it out on purpose). She told me she would get temporary child support while the divorce was going on, but that never happened either. I was going to graduate school, so finances were tight, and in that time, that was a loss of over $7,000, and her fees ran close to $18,000 during all of this. After the first mediation, which failed, she told me she could help me... it went downhill from there. There was even one time my ex took me to court, making false accusations, and she entered with not one shred of paper, no briefcase, NOTHING! There was one point I tried to provide her with paper that showed my position and she shoved it away. She also lied to the judge (not necessary since I had a court document as my proof), and when I asked her after why she didn't tell the truth, she told me we didn't want the judge to know that yet... The truth is, I think it would have helped me. She was disapproving of me, and by the Texas Bar, she should have sent me to other counsel. She led me on, thinking she would be helpful in the end. To my horror, during the second (and last) mediation, she didn't believe my side and became so disgusted she threw her hands in the air and exclaimed, "I can't defend you!" Then she went on to brag to the mediator about her son going to an ivy league college. She made no further attempt to help me, attempted nothing of which I requested except child support (which is required anyway), but she did NOT even TRY to get back child support. I was devastated. Fortunately, after the failed negotiations which ended so horribly for me, I fired her and hired other counsel to finalize the divorce and THEN renegotiated the terms. My new attorney was able to restore my hope and procure a better life for myself and daughter, so things are good now. Really, there are so many things I could say... I would run!

Barbara did not do timely work: she was going to file a simple motion to modify, but took so long (never filed when she said she would) that my ex-husband was able to file an enforcement motion first regarding our children. Then she told me to not accept his serving until she filed......and my ex h...usband told me that she kept avoiding signing a certified letter he kept trying to deliver to her by the fact that she was never at her office like she said she would be. I started getting a bad feeling regarding her and then looked up more reviews....which were all bad. So I fired her on a particular date and hired a new attorney. She continued to charge me for services that my new attorney was doing and basically spent my entire retainer in one month. Her charges for approx 1 month almost equaled what my first attorney charged me for the totality of my contested divorce. Also, she does not live in Kerrville and is not completely open about that at first. I will be filing a grievance and may even take her to small claims court for the principle of the matter. This was a nightmare attorney. Do not be fooled by her promises or seemingly nice demeanor....you will regret it.

I am devastated that I did not read these reviews prior to retaining Barbara Cole. She has cost me thousands of dollars and done nothing to move my case forward after almost 3 years. We have paid close to $40,000 and have not had a single hearing, deposition or discovery from the other side. It is tr...uly abuse. She has delayed the case so long that we may not even have one. Our "change in circumstances" were so long that I am not sure they qualify any more. She is absolutely disorganized, absent minded and only cares about the money. I do not recommend her but I do recommend those done wrong by her to post reviews a a file complaints with the Texas State Bar.