Martha Johanna Olson

Martha was my attorney for the last 4 months of a 5 year long divorce. I chose her because she had high reviews on Avvo.com. Unfortunately, it was a big mistake. Our personalities just did not mesh, and she was too busy to ever truly understand the ins and outs of my complicated, long-running case.... She was an atypically (compared to other attorneys I dealt with who were business-only) kind and empathetic woman (at times), but she never spent enough time on my case and we had significant communication problems. I communicated my displeasure with the level of service I was getting but always kept it respectful and professional, framing the issues as mutual communication challenges. One reason for that was I rarely was able to communicate directly to her, having to go thru her assistant (Angela). This caused major problems, since messages thru her assistant often did not get translated correctly/fully or were no longer current by the time I got to speak to Martha. Martha was personally offended by my displeasure and reacted in an unprofessional manner, writing me letters with YELLING font. That really should have been the end of it, but with trial just around the corner, I felt I had no choice but to use her. She didn’t know what the prior 5 years had been like, so she couldn’t understand what I was dealing with and why I had a strong case for sanctions. She just wanted me to settle. At a pre-trial, she was not very on top of the case at all. It is not entirely her fault, since my spouse gave us his 200-page accounting document the Friday of a long weekend and the pre-trial hearing was on Tuesday. I felt she should have objected to it coming in so late, but she seemed to just want me to get it over with and settle. She was so unfamiliar with my position that at the pre-trial, she even offered a settlement to the judge and Opposing Counsel whereby I was paying some cash to my spouse (she thought she was helping me by suggesting that this cash be treated as Spousal Support, so that I could deduct it in my taxes). However, in my mind, my spouse should have been the one paying me. It was I who had to argue (successfully) for no cash to change hands at all. Under pressure from her and the judge, I reluctantly agreed to settle (even though my spouse's accountant's reports had significant errors), and the judge ordered Martha to write up the judgment. For 2 months, she did nothing, in spite of the fact that I contacted her office on at least 3 occasions to find out if she had ordered the transcript yet. She never did and ultimately ended-up asking Opposing Counsel to write-up the judgment. At that point, I suggested things weren’t working out and e-mailed her that I wanted to discuss with her the best time for her to substitute out. That same day, she was attending a meeting with the judge and Opposing Counsel to discuss an issue that required clarification. Since she knew I was going to have her substitute out, she attended the meeting only because she was obligated to do so, but she did not make the recommendations that I had requested she make. So, I wrote her I would not pay her for her time to prep/attend that meeting, which was less than $300. I paid all the rest of her bill (never later than 1 billing cycle), even though I was so unhappy with her services. In spite of all this, she continues to bill me for the less than $300. Also, after she substituted out, she refused to give me my records. I had to threaten a complaint with the state bar to get it. Once I got it, I discovered documents from Opposing Counsel that were never shared with me. These could have had a material impact on the outcome of the case. While Martha seemed knowledgeable of family law and may be effective if engaged early on, I do not recommend her to anyone who is going thru a highly contentious divorce and wants an aggressive attorney who is willing to fight for you to the end.