William James Dean

I hired Mr Dean to represent me in my divorce. I was very distraught at the time I hired him and took him from a recommendation from his paralegal. Once I gave him a retainer, the lack of communication started immediately. He told me he was too expensive for me and to talk to his paralegal. That wor...ked for a while then she stopped communicating. He contacted me 15 minutes prior to our first court hearing to get information! He was completely unprepared for our hearing. I was shocked. Then he took $3000 more from me to represent me for a Pre Decree Relief trial which he later cancelled. He told me we would lose. It was an uphill battle to get my own lawyer to fight for me. And he never did. This was not a complex case- no children or property involved. He didn’t want me as a client any longer and called to tell me since I had ‘inadequate funding’ that he was turning me over to another lawyer in his office mid case. I wanted to get out of this agreement with him as there was no belief in my case and I was treated terribly the entire time because I didn’t have a ton of money. He knew this taking my case. He told me initially, he’d get me half’ and that my legal fees would be ‘paid from the marital estate’ , neither happened! In the end, I ended up with $10,000 as they lost my case. It took 11 months of dragging on. I don’t know who was worse- the jerk I was divorcing or my lawyer. The frosting on this cake is a bill that I received for $14,000. It overlapped my first bill in dates. Who does two concurrent bills and doesn’t tell you about the ‘second one’? When I called to inquire about this interesting bill, Mr Dean told me ‘if there is an issue with your billing, we simply don’t need to represent you’. I was over billed $10,000! My lawyer fees went from $350 an hour to $450 per hour and my paralegal fees went from $125 hr to $300 per hour! Truly unbelievable. Do not use him. Run the other way. A big, huge regretful experience.

I am a disabled vet. I hired him in my divorce action because a paralegal recommended him. I cannot seem to find Mr. Dean. I paid Uber to drive me to his office, but his has no office on the Big Island. He lists his office on Kilauea St. ??? I call him on the phone, and he rudely says, “can’t tal...k now.” This has happened six times in three weeks. He told me on our first tel con he would help me with a caregiver thru the VA, but that was weeks ago. He did however take my retainer via aAmex over the phone. I really would not hire him again. By the way, I have yet to actually meet him.