Paul Frederic Donsbach

When my wife filed a divorce in 2013 thru her lawyer, I consulted/interviewed 2 lawyers to defend me. I had about 10 questions about my divorce case, the procedures, documentations needed, my options, fees and other legal matters I needed to know. The 1st lawyer went thru the procedures, documentati...ons, fees and refused to answer other questions unless I first sign a contract with him. I left and proceeded to consult/interviewed the 2nd lawyer (Paul F. Donsbach ). Paul answered all of my questions first. I was convinced of his professionalism by not asking for the money first but also he pointed out all the possible legal issues involved on spousal support, child support, retirement benefits...etc. After the interview/consultation, I felt completely comfortable dealing with Paul that I made the contract with him to be my defense lawyer. Paul's analysis and recommendation gave light to my financial dilemna, I opted not for a court litigation but for a marital agreement. As the legal papers moved back and forth from the courthouse to the lawyers and to me, Paul gave updates to the status of my case even though he had been very busy with court hearings. There were delays in the processing of papers but these were due to the slow responses of the other party and the frustrating backlogs of court cases due to the sequestration in 2013. My wife had been angrily mad with the divorce case progression while her lawyer had been callous and insensitive for charging more fees. Paul had been cool and calm to the firestorms in handling my divorce case up to the resolution in mid 2013. The Court judgement arrived and rewarded me the house, the car, retaining my retirement benefits, no spousal support, no child support and leaving me responsible for the credit cards I owned. My ex-wife walked away with her marital freedom and also paid for her credit cards. Paul saved me thousands of dollars with my divorce case. I am very satisfied with Paul's legal service and I highly recommend him to others.

Mr. Donsbach, was not a referral he was some one that I found through a direct mailer, and I have to admit that it was a great decision on my part. I thought that my divorce would be simple and amicable and so I originally did not think to hire a lawyer. I simply used Paul for a consultation and he g...ave me some advice on how to best proceed. He never pressured me to hire him full time or steered my case in a contentious or litigious way and was simply supportive of what I told him the goals of my divorce were. When things started to become much more difficult he continued to be supportive and gave me options as to how to best proceed all the time never pressuring me for unnecessary office hour visits and never looking to add unreasonable hours to my billing. In the end Paul became a trusted friend who always had my best interests at heart regardless of the financial advantage or disadvantage to himself. I would recommend him to anyone who needs legal services as he will be a kind ally who will help guide you through what can potentially be a very difficult time in your life; keeping you informed of what is going on and always helping you feel as though you have options and choices in moving forward in your case and in your life.

Please do not use this attorney. He cost me my case and I'd hate to see him do this to others. Despite repeatedly telling me we would do trial prep, he never did. Even up to the day before the trial I was asking to do trial prep. He went into court completely unprepared. The judge ignored every singl...e one of his facts that he failed to establish. He forgot to submit the deposition before court. He tried to impeach the witness and the judge looked at him dumbfounded as she cannot impeach the witness if there is no deposition. He still charged me for the deposition. No only was the deposition worthless, it actually prepared my ex for trial. He kept advising me that the judgment could be appealed. However, it cannot. Every lawyer knows it cannot be appealed if there is no court reporter. He might have been a good lawyer once but now he just appears not to care. I think he writes fantasy novels now so he might be leaving his lawyer career behind. He didn't show up for some meetings. He left early at others. For the ones he did attend he didn't bother to listen. He needs to be disbarred immediately before he destroys other people that trust and count on him.

I went to Paul in a very desperate time for my child custody case in Santa Clara County - He was one of the only attorney's willing to work with me financially and his JR. Attorney Neena was warm and welcoming. Paul showed up to court unprepared many times, I told him exact things my son's father wou...ld say and he never acted on it. I was told I could not be at the hearing for orders to be read and that was untrue - The other parent was there. I showed up to court one day with no noticed it had been cancelled. The whole thing was chaos! Paul may be a great attorney but if you are looking for child custody, I say stick with an attorney that only works one county, knows their judges and their judges temperaments well (he pissed our judge off a few times) and they must be Certified Family Specialist. Due to our loss in court, my 20 month old son spends 35% time with his father who lives 2 hours away from us. My son sits in traffic from Central Valley to San Jose twice per week. Modifications are hard to get and my son continues to be in a stressful situation due to the attorney not fighting hard enough for us and not being fully prepared. Lastly, I did not pay my balance on for Mr. Donsbach because my son and family are suffering from the lack of help. I stated that because I often see attorney's come on and state they still did not receive payment. After trying so hard to pay the balance off after our proceedings, I decided not to and allocate to an attorney that could help me.