Nat Edward Hales Jr

Worst legal experience of my life. My divorce attorney recommended we use Nat Hales as a private judge rather than adjudicate our case in Superior Family Court. We paid him roughly $8K to handle the case, and after two sessions lasting less than 4 hours total, he withdrew from the case, with absolute...ly no explanation (and I still have no clue why he did it or how he could possibly justify it). I couldn't believe he could do that, but apparently, if you get a private judge, there's absolutely no accountability, and they can do whatever the heck they want. "Judge" Hales was "highly recommended" by my attorney, and I now pretty much believe that the legal operatives in the CA family court system are all in cahoots with each other. Anyhow, now we have to start over in family court. Counting the money I paid my attorney for these sessions, this little charade cost me roughly $14K, for nothing, with absolutely no accountability on the part of "Judge" Hales, or my attorney, for that matter. Disgusting and outrageous, and just goes to show you the legal system is basically set up to transfer money, very efficiently, from client's wallets to the wallets of the esteemed legal practitioners, who for some reason feel they automatically have some sort of elevated status vis a vis the rest of us schmucks. (Suggest you watch Divorce Corp. on Netflix, which I watched, unfortunately, after this happened.) People have been complaining about lawyers since time immemorial, but there's nothing like getting hit in the head with a 4"x4" as I was with this experience, to make you realize it's all true. Aside from his resigning the case for no reason after being paid $8K, I found "Judge" Hales to be arrogant, pontificating, and just generally not someone anyone would want to deal with. My strong advice: Look somewhere else if you need a family law attorney, and by all means, NEVER EVER sign up for this private judge racket, and especially with this guy.