Daniel Victor Burke

My wife filed for divorce a little over a month ago. Our relationship had been on the rocks for a little while but I certainly didn't see this coming. After I received a call from her attorney, I hired counsel. I have a friend who passed the bar not long ago that I have used in some business deals an...d thought I would use him in my divorce. After several meetings and the advice of many friends, I decided to move to an attorney who specializes in Family Law since there will be custody issues involved as well as separate assets that were gifted... I have a friend who recommended Mr. Burke as 'the best Family Law attorney in the county'. Mr. Burke's firm is also a short drive from my home and office. As soon as I hired Mr. Burke, the game changed. I feel much more comfortable with this process knowing that I am in capable and respected hands. I'll post a follow up review that further details my experience once this process is over and I can only anticipate another raving, 5 star review!

Daniel Burke and his partner Pierre Domercq are unethical, negligent, incompetent and banal hacks. Burke whose hourly rate is $550/hr, lures you in by saying his partner Domercq who bills at $275/hr. will do all the heavy lifting, and that Burke wld only get involved if it went to trial. This turne...d out to be his first big lie! Burke touched every bit of paperwork as did virtually all the many other people on his staff so they all could add their charges to his, w/o every having Domercq do any work at all, thus driving the bill into the stratosphere very quickly. Each time I'd challenge Burke on this, he'd go on a long winded, circuitous rant that made no sense, usually w/Domercq on the line, both saying how Domercq wld do the work, and this never happened. Burke and Co. also failed to do a number of important things I asked for relative to deposition, declarations, inquiries, etc. He also used vile and profane language during office visits and on phone. Why Pierre Domercq even recently phoned me to complain about an online review I had submitted and he literally 'threatened' me saying that if I did not remove my review they would sue me for libel, in a long and expensive lawsuit. Imagine that! To all these and other things, I have a witness as well. The case was pretty simple, yet they kept saying how very complicated it was. Here's how it went. After looking at many houses over many months together, my ex (who I divorced for ongoing abuses) and I purchased a major fixer upper property together in Escondido, CA, as we had been formally engaged for over one years time. The loan officer for the house told us that because I had somewhat recently discharged a bankruptcy, that I would not be able to go on the loan or title. He recommended to both of us that we put it all in the ex's name, which we did. I then spent the next six years significantly improving the property (by personally turning the two acre jungle into award winning gardens and by designing and building a 2300 SF addition), at which point we do an inter spousal quitclaim, formally giving me equal ownership. The ex never lifted a finger in any of this work. Five years after this I file for divorce and we go to a 'Court Facilitator' to formalize the arrangement because we had everything all worked out, or so I thought. Shortly after that, the ex hires Beatrice Snider, who btw, had been the ex's best friend of many years! Snider then puts the notorious atty Christine Sickler on the case (see their many horrible online reviews on Yelp and other places). Their ploy was to make me invisible between yrs of purchase to quitclaim, which happened to be the years of greatest appreciation, claiming that the house belonged to the ex as her sole and separate property, even though the record shows I paid half the down payment, paid half of all mortgage payments, personally maintained the property and did all major renovations to the house and grounds for duration of marriage. BTW, everyone familiar w/this case 'knows' the ex never wld have purchased this major fixer on her own, w/o me. By doing this unethical and unscrupulous thing, venal Snider, Sickler and the ex, effectively stole most of my hard earned and rightful equity in the house by paying me just pennies on the dollar! Burke and Co. mounted a tepid case against this. Example: I gave Burke and Co. a list of over 200 pointed questions to ask during formal deposition, which had they been properly asked wld have exposed the truth of the house purchase and the sinister motives of the ex. Even so, I have proof that the ex lied on a number of occasions as did her attorneys, so they could steal my equity. When I asked Burke and Co. to expose these lies and sinister motives, he balked. I would say that Burke and Co. come on strong in the beginning to get your case and then fall back into a pattern resembling complacent, burned out hacks, who lack passion for the truth.