Gary P. Levinson

When I first came to Mr. Levinson, he seemed professional and his rates appeared reasonable. However, it was long before I found out different. First off, Mr. Levinson does not have a paralegal to do the paperwork, which means he prepares it himself and charges $300 per hour; three times the cost of... a paralegal. Next he puts very little effort into the work he prepares. For example, when preparing my response to the divorce petition, it was very fragmented, had no clear direction, and did not address the issues in a concise and easily understandable manner. It was full of errors. I ended up re-writing it myself. I often had to leave 3 or 4 messages before I would get a response from Mr. Levinson, and even when I did, his responses would only address one of three or four questions I had. Even more telling was when he notified me I had a court date in the Downey court. When I showed up, I could not find the room I was suppose to be in. I was told by one of the court workers that the room number did not exist and that family court was in Norwalk. When I told Mr. Levinson that he sent me to the wrong court house, his response was to laugh and say that to him Norwalk and Downey are one in the same, even thought they 30 minutes from each other! He then told me not to worry because he was going to ask for a continuance due to the fact that he had to be in court later that day in Orange County, and that he was sure the judge would grant it. However, not only did the judge go ahead with proceeding that day, I did not get to present my side since my attorney "had other obligations" that same day. This resulted in the judge awarding my ex over $6,000 per month in temporary support! Do yourself a favour and hire a competent attorney with staff that can handle the paperwork, know where to show up for court and has other attorneys that can fill in, if need be. This will save you money in the long run.