John G Bednarz

I hired John to represent me in family court for my parenting time, legal decision making, and child support. I did some research on local lawyers and spoke to him on the phone. Things that I liked right off the bat were the reviews online, his lengthy experience with this type of case and his immedi...ate availability. I rely heavily on reviews so I looked at multiple places for cross referencing and everything seemed to check out.  I did feel like John had my best interest at first and during the process something changed. His attitude changed towards the case as well as this attitude on how he was dealing with me.  I questioned one thing that I was charged for and it seemed like everything after that point completely changed. He started charging for absolutely everything under 'John's fee'. I believe it was something like $35 to forward any email to me, $100 for me to drop documents off at his office. He would sit in his office and tell me stories of his grandkids and of his other clients and I would be charged his $360 hour rate for that time. During the initial meeting we had I remember asking specifically if he had a paralegal that helped with some of the tasks and he mentioned his wife Becky and said she helped out here and there but come-to-find-out he charges "John's rate" for everything that is done.  One of the court virtual meetings John had forwarded me a number to call in. When I got on call the judge asked why I wasn't on video chat. Unfortunately, It made me look unprepared and avoidant, which was not the case by any means.  During our very last hearing John spent hours and hours (based on what I was billed for) preparing for the final case. When we went in, he submitted every text message between my childs father and I (1 years worth) which the opposing counsel skimmed through on their laptop and used multiple parts of MY evidence against me. When evidence was used against me to prove the other sides point, he never reviewed  and clarified any of the statements to the judge. Based on all of the interactions and documentation between my son's father and I this should have been easily swayed in my favor (ex had recent DUI, texts of him guilty of coercion, and multiple examples of contempt of court to name a few things). Instead I walked into that courtroom completely feeling unprepared. The only thing I was told to focus on to prepare for court was "make a timeline of events". I did have a timeline prepared but there are so many other things that would have helped in court that I was completely not prepared for.  In the end, the cost was about 50% more than he had originally quoted me on 'what the case should cost', with no additional court dates or reasons for this to be higher. About a week after receiving the judgement I had emailed John asking if he knew why my ex would get to claim my son for 3 consecutive years on taxes, he has just completely ignored my email and why the judgement was so far in his favor. He just completely ignored me. I just wanted to put my experience out there because if i would have read a current review that was honest and stated these types of behaviors I may have not trusted all of these perfect reviews that this lawyer has. I just feel like in the end he did not do me justice, I'm not sure he really cared much if my case went well or not. In some cases experience isn't everything. I don't like feeling taken-advantage-of so I hope this helps someone out there who may weigh heavy on the reviews, like I do. Kindly, Jenn

From the first phone call with Becky till the day of my child support hearing John is a no nonsense lawyer. John was extremely understanding and patient with all of my concerns and needs. I never felt unimportant or rushed. I knew the minute I called and spoke to Becky that his law firm was the ri...ght choice for my case. John and Becky took their time to always make sure I was always informed on all necessary information. There are no real words to express my gratitude towards all the hard work they put forth for my case.