Eliot Franklin Krieger

My wife filed divorce papers primarly asking the court to authorize the issuance of a passport to our US born son (she is a green card holder). Jarvis, Krieger & Sullivan asked a $5,000 retainer to start with, and based on their estimation, the case will be settled at 1st hearing (taking into account... the mediation & counseling time in California, which may take 6 months). The attorney assigned to my case did not sound strong enough to negotiate on my behalf, but I felt a bit encouraged when she drafted my response to the lawsuit, I felt that they found flaws in the documents filed against me, and as such, requested the dismassal of the case against me on grounds of inaccuracies of forms filed. Meanwhile, I started to notice that each time my phone ring, or I receive or send an e-mail, even a simple phone conversation or a "yes or no" type of e-mails, that my retainer is drained to the point that with the very few documents that needed to be filed, I was already down to about $3,500 on deposit, and the charges kept accumulating, with no justification or progress (charges like consulting with another attorny in firm, or with senior partner). Further, I often been charged for :"case review" or "discussion" with no apparent result or progress. At the 1st court hearing, the opposing attorney (although hated to be there, she was a pro-bono from the church charging no fees) walked allover me and my Jarvis attorney without any rebuttal or defense from my attorney. My attorney even allowed the opposing attorney to write the stipulations to file with the court that basically gave my wife what she needed (my agreement to allow my son to get a US passport & travel aboard), but my attorney did not negotiate a "take" or a settlement (as you normally do ...give ...and take). I ened up giving my wife what she asked for, while my attorney was silent and did not demand the opposing attorney to stipulate that they are not seeking child or spousal support, so the stipulation ened up been written by the opposing attorney with bad grammer, while my attorney sitting down doing nothing. A hearing was set 6 months hence. I could not undertand why my attorney did not insist on dropping the case after I authorize the travel of my son. So the door was left open to the opposing attorney to bring the matter allover again during the 2nd hearing. What was so amazing that I was being charged periodically within these 6 months of doing nothing "case review" charges that are ironic. As I have already been charged for strategy mettings & planning time and time again, but none of these so called strategies were implemented to solve my very simple divorce case. My attorney could not show up to the 2nd hearing, instead a very knowlegible attorney from the firm appeared. Meanwhile, i was being charged left & right with things like phone calls to the court to announce the replacing attorney, i was also charged for letting the court know that the new attorney would be late to arrive to cout, I was charged also for letting me know of the temp change of attornies all of such charges are bringing me no value and I should not have been resonsible for. During the 2nd hearing, now that I have a more experience attorney, i was charged at a higher rate, which is understandable, but the attorney was in court less than 3 hours, and although he had my file, he really was not abreast of the details of my case (although all the while, i was billed for meetings between the two attornies of the firm to discuss my case monthly, and sometimes weekly). They did not stop there! i was charged 5 + hours of court and consulting time, although he was there less than 3 hours. My simple case is still simple, but it did not end, there are two more hearings, and according to the firm, other than te $5,000 i already gave them, I still owe $1,500 + and they are asking me to deposit another $5,000 retainer for them to continue. otherwise, they will stop representing m