Eddie L. Laughlin

My ex-husband and I agreed to a divorce in late 2010. Someone has to file, so I did. I spoke with Mr. Laughlin in the initial interview and he assigned me to his associate, Mr. N. J. Gaunt. My ex and I wrote out our separation agreement and division of property. In it I gave him the house we ...were living in. I would move out and find something else. Although we split the cost of the attorney’s fees, Mr. Gaunt was my attorney. At no point did Mr. Gaunt point out, mention, or suggest anything about what might become problems with the division of our property or a joint mortgage. I returned to the office within a year because my ex was now chronically arrears in the payment on HIS house but was dragging my credit down. I went back to the office for assistance or advice and got the ‘too bad, so sad’ response because there was nothing in the paperwork that addressed the joint mortgage. When I thought back on it, Mr. Gaunt was going through or had gone through a divorce of his own and had mentioned discontent with his ex over issues with child custody. You pay your money to an attorney to look into the dark corners, smooth out the creases, and interpret the fine print. I could have typed up my own paperwork and filed and gotten this result for a lot less money.

Nicholas works for the Ed Laughlin office in Temple, Texas. I was referred by a friend to Ed, himself, and received a free consultation with Ed Laughlin. I was assured my divorce would be handled carefully and he even talked to me about not putting up with domestic violence since my soon to be ex had... tried to strangle me and had been arrested. However, my first court hearing I was shocked when some squirrely guy shows up and A-has no clue who I am and B-says "oh Ed hasn't been in a courtroom in YEARS" I was npt informed Ed would not be representing me. The lawyer assigned to me w/o my knowledge was Nicholas. I am a single mother and had this gross custody battle ahead of me and this lawyer talks about how much he despises women, how he got custody of his own child, etc. He overlooked some really pivotal mistakes in the separation/temp orders. I had to comb through everything numerous time and make corrections anytime we had to go to court. My final hearing played out in my kiddo's favor, the judge ruled in her best interest and we were pleased. However, the ex's lawyers were in charge of typing the final decree. They changed the property division, child support, visitation....? My lawyer Nicho assured me he would not allow these final papers to go through without my approval. Over the past year, I reviewed the papers a dozen times and pointed out glaring mistakes. It was a nightmare! I asked to have court reporter notes pulled asked my lawyer to type up the decree everything I could think of! However, a few weeks ago, the order went through and I am stuck with stuff I didn't agree to! Nicholas responded with "take it up with the AG" and Ed Laughlin never responded.