Did not finish my divorce found out still married 24 years later
1.0 starPosted by Terri
MoreI paid for a divorce in full in 1992 when Mr.Holmes was with Jacoby & Meyers that was supposedly completed only to find out 2 years ago that I am still married and my case is still open online on the Superior Court website! When I contacted Mr. Holmes regarding this he told me he was not obligated to help me because I signed a document in 1993 for Dept. Of Child Support Serv. Stating I was not represented. I did not know that Mr. Holmes had not finished my divorce a year after we went to court for our final hearing! And I had to sign that document with DCSS in order to collect CS from my deadbeat (I thought) ex husband! So now after 25 years I have to start my divorce all over again and I am out the 3000.00 I paid to Jacoby and Meyers for my incomplete divorce. This attorney has no integrity and has no moral compass what so ever. He knows he is in the wrong and blatantly refused to correct it because of a document I signed so I could collect child support. I am filing a a complaint with the state bar assoc. and hopefully I can get some sort of resolution..beware of this attorney, retain at your own risk. Terri
This review is from a person who hired this attorney.Hired attorneyDo not work with this lawyer
1.0 starPosted by anonymous
More Neil S Holmes’s response: “It is highly unusual that a "straightforward" child support case would involve 7-8 hours of work in the first three days. Typically $2800 (for 7-8 hours of work) covers a child support modification matter. More realistic here is that either the client waited until the last minute to hire an attorney -- which means we pushed all other work aside in order to prepare his pleadings and appear in court over these three days -- or there was some other emergency with the case that all had to be handled immediately. Normally child support paperwork is prepared and the court hearing occurs several weeks later. We provide detailed and specific billing statements so the client knows exactly what services were provided.”I met with Neil for a $300 consultation to help me with a fairly straightforward child support modification. He said he only works by retainer. He agreed that it was straightforward and did not think it would require all of the $2,800 retainer. He said the balance would be kept in my account and could be used on an ongoing basis when/if I had questions. I paid the $2,800 retainer. He burned through it in the next 3 business days and firmly demanded another $750. I asked him for clarification on where all the hours were spent which he found personally offensive. From the moment I questioned his hours he went from responsive to incredibly unresponsive. I was de-prioritized as a client for questioning him. Last week I expressed my disappointment to him after waiting for nearly 3 weeks for a response to a basic question. In response he fired me as a client.
Neil knows the law but he is incredibly arrogant. If you don’t mind tip toeing around his fragile ego and opening your bank account you will be fine. If you dare expressing any opinion about his work, his hours, or his fees you should be prepared to be fired as a client. BUYER BEWARE!!!