James C. Erickson

I hired the law firm Dunham and Jones in Austin, Texas for defense of a completely bogus domestic violence charge filed against me by my now ex-wife. I have no criminal record and absolutely no history of violence, so I was a complete newbie to this realm, and entirely susceptible to the salesman-lik...e promises of a law firm. The attorney assigned to my case was James C. Erickson. In person, Mr. Erickson was professional and cordial, but throughout a long, drawn out period of nearly two years, I discovered his true level of competence and concern for me. Rather than take charge of my defense, Mr. Erickson chose to be more passive, always just reacting to the slow-moving process of the Court and the prosecuting county attorney. This meant numerous court delays and postponements. During the entire process, he seemed to simply roll with what was happening. He never pushed back, never filed a motion to the Court, and never took initiative to negotiate a reasonable settlement. I could write a lot more, but instead I will simply say that Mr. Erickson proved to be unmotivated to proactively pursue my defense, and despite the claims of his firm, this turned out to be a nightmare of an experience for me. Mr. Erickson often would not respond to phone calls or emails. This made the process even more uncertain and stressful for me. He also frequently disregarded or did not follow through on my suggestions. I often felt like I was doing more than him in my own defense, which should an embarrassing testimony for an attorney. Toward the latter part of the proceedings, he stopped responding altogether. I then had to resort to speaking with Mr. Paul Dunham, lead attorney at the firm. After one reassuring phone call with Mr. Dunham, this too turned into a similar bad joke. Eventually, I had to drive to Austin (two hours away) unannounced, just days before my trial to corner them and appeal for a response. Only then, the day before the trial, did Mr. Erickson finally do something substantial and negotiate an acceptable deal with the prosecutor’s office. Even though my trial was narrowly averted, my experience with James Erickson was overly stressful and unnecessarily costly, by the time everything was said and done. I have tried to refrain from using excessively negative language here, yet I hope that my review will alert someone else in a similar situation. Please be very careful when hiring an attorney. Your life and future may be in the hands of someone who has been doing this so long that they really don’t care anymore.