Van Oliver Kinney

Mr Kinney was my attorney through a complicated child custody case. Throughout the extremely long process, Mr. Kinney handled the case with integrity, courage, skill and tenacity. He was supportive during the entire process and an encouragement to my wife and I when the wheels of the legal system... turned frustratingly slow. He clearly explained the big ideas of California Family Law as well as the intricacies, so that we better understood how to articulate the issues to the court. His years of experience, wisdom, and knowledge of the law was invaluable to helping my children when they were caught in a very difficult situation.You could not find a more skilled and objective attorney.

He charged me an OUTRAGEOUS retainer, sat on my divorce for 2 years and I still had to hire another attorney to get a simple divorce! I hired him as a divorce attorney at a $3500.00 upfront fee for a simple , mutually agreed upon divorce. Two years later, there was still no divorce! I requested my f...ile so that I could hire another attorney and in the case file, not only were there BLANK SHEETS of paper-but duplicates and triplicates from the paperwork that had been completed mostly by my ex-wife's attorney to make it look like I had a file! He never even showed up in court for the only appearance he ever needed to make on my behalf and then charged me more for the "stand in" attorney who knew nothing about my simple divorce case! He was rarely ever available over the two year period in which he drug out my divorce, never answered my questions, never read my documents and even tried billing me many more times for sitting on my divorce case unnecessarily for two years! The longer he sat on it, the more he continued to try to charge! I then hired a brilliant attorney that was able to achieve a bifurcation in 30 days for only $1000.00! Does Van Kinney know what a bifurcation is after "practicing" taking people's money for over 30 years? Research and get the service you pay for somewhere else! After my experience and reading the other reviews, I agree, how is this man still able to represent himself as an attorney? Based on my direct experience with Van Kinney, in my opinion, his actions bring disgrace upon himself and his profession by misrepresenting what he said he would do to ensure my divorce, taking my payment for a service he never delivered, and not even reading my submissions to be knowledgeable about my case. He threw red-herrings instead of answers. Zero accountability for his lack of action. Look at his Bar record. Read reviews from people that experienced his incompetence,which seems more to me like he just does not care and knows how to take advantage of people since it would be hard to be an attorney for that many years and hide behind the disguise of incompetence. Go any where else!

Van Kinney required a $7000 advanced fee deposit from me and then did not even read the documents I provided to him. He did nothing to help my case while in court even though he had been given plenty of documentation that would have turned the tables. He is lazy and makes many mistakes. Run don't ...walk away from this attorney. After losing a case everyone told me was a slam dunk, he then did not return the unused portion of my advanced fees. Search the State Bar web page and see how many people have filed grievances about him. I don't know how he still has his license.