John G Mull

I hired John Mull to represent me in my divorce proceeding. I did not take the decision to file for divorce lightly, and was careful to take my time through each step of the process and carefully consider each step I made before taking it. At one point, his paralegal emailed me and asked me how I wa...s doing, and if I was ready for next steps. I reported my progress to her with some of the paperwork I was working on, she said “great,” and told me that if an extension of my divorce proceeding was required due to the increased time I was taking, it would be filed. All of this conveyed via email. This last month, I called John and said I was ready to get this show on the road. On Jan 10th, I met with him at his office and we prepared a ten day response document for my husband, to be filed with the court and mailed that day. If my husband did not respond to that document within ten days, I would “win” by default. I started counting days...ten went by and no response! This was good news. I was absolutely elated. On day 11, I received a call from John. He started the conversation by saying that ‘he didn’t know how to tell me this,’ but that somehow, my divorce case had been dismissed by the court back in December. How could that possibly be? I had just sat in his office and prepared a document for a divorce case that no longer existed? You didn’t KNOW THE CASE HAD BEEN DISMISSED??? He explained that he did not get the emails from the court that came early in December asking what the status of the divorce was. He said that the court said they inquired and did not receive a response. John said he never received such an email. On the day the court dismissed my case (Dec 29), John says he didn’t get the electronic docket email that showed my case on the docket and up for dismissal that day. Once again, he explained that the court said they sent it, but that he didn’t receive it. He extended a very lawyer-ish apology, and offered to re-do my case at no charge. I asked what exactly would need to be re-done. I was going to need to re-file for divorce, husband would need to be re-served, and the entire process would begin again. Every part of this divorce proceeding has been wiped away, as if it never happened. I am in shock. I declined John’s offer, and explained that there just wasn’t any way I could ever put my faith in him to responsibly represent me at this point. I asked him to prepare my file for pickup, and requested a full refund of my retainer. I felt this was a fair request since every meeting we’d had, every document we’d prepared, no longer existed...a lot of work, and $2,000 in charges, and I was back at square one. John did allow pickup of my file, but refused to return my 2k. The reason? He said that because he offered to re-do everything at no charge and I declined, that his time and effort into the work he had done justified his keeping it. We are human...we all screw up sometimes. This was a colossal screw up, a gigantic mistake, and instead of owning it, he has opted to blame “the court.” Clearly, the right thing to do would have been to sincerely apologize for the error, refund my retainer, and allow me to start over again, however and with whomever I desired. I am already paying the emotional price of having to start again from scratch with a process that was gut wrenching for me to begin in the first place. I’m also paying the price in real dollars...2000 of them...for a “job” that was not carried out thoughtfully, responsibly, and has left me with months of precious time lost. I am sick over it. I am filing a complaint with the state bar association, using every social media avenue available to me to inform the public of my experience with John Mull, and will pursue every avenue possible to seek a full return of my retainer. In the meantime, I have hired another attorney, paid another retainer, and get to start this painful process over again.