John Albert Balent

I was referred to Mr. Balent by an acquaintence from church. After 1 1/2yrs of Mr. Balent as my attorney, 18K$ in fees, he convinced me to give up the % of overtime in support that had been granted me by the court. My marriage was bifurcated and progressed to a trial. Mr. Balent showed up to court wi...thout any documents, completely unprepared, and had told me not to show up. My trial was started anyway, my ex husband was pro per and I was cross-examined by him. Mr. Balent did nothing to prevent this situation. I was forced to hire another attorney mid trial. Mr. Balent did not fulfill his contract, never advocated for me or my children, and was never prepared. He told me I would never get the support that I was entitled to. I know three other women who hired, then fired him for mismanagement. You do NOT want to hire this attorney unless you like to throw hard earned money away to someone who does not do the work they promise.

Mr. Balent, my divorce atty, was conracted to obtain an order of restraint, get order for spousal support, divide community property, and resolve all non-status issues, such as tax fraud perpetrated by my ex. After more than a year passed, he had done nothing except get the order for spousal suppor...t. His delay to act cost me money and hardship. For example, by the time I hired a subsequent attorney to complete the divorce, my ex's 401k had been converted to an IRA in his name only, whereas I had hired Mr. Balent to place a joinder on it 14 months earlier. One month after hiring him, I warned him that my ex's employer (a bank) was reportedly going to crash. He had agreed to issue subpoenas for bank records that proved some mutual assets had been stolen. Despite my frequent pleas, Mr. Balent waited for three months after being notified about the crash. Even then, he sent the request to the wrong employer. By the time he contacted my husband's employer, they had been taken over by the government and the records were lost. As a result, the judge wouldn't allow me to be compensated, stating that I needed to provide those records. Mr. Balent rarely provided me with updates or documents pertaining to my case. Once he provided me with a document unsigned by a judge. It took him two months to submit the stipulation for support because in the first one he had forgotten to specify "until death or remarriage". Neither Mr. Balent's staff nor his paralegal could give me status reports, and on several occasions I was told they couldn't answer my questions because my file was lost. Months after I retained him, his paralegal informed me she was unaware I had asked for any records from any bank. After firing Mr. Balent, I asked for a partial refund of my retainer. He responded by sending me a bill, which upon examination, contained many charges which were false and even some double charges. For example, I was charged twice for his submission of the stipulation for support, although the second one had to be submitted due to the omission of "until death or remarriage" in the first one. Also, I was charged for subpoenas sent to wrong addresses. He also charged me for calling or faxing requests that urged him to take action before the bank went out of business. Furthermore, he charged me for all subpoenas sent to wrong addresses, even though I had supplied him with all addresses when I retained him.