David George Kontos

Mr. Kontos needs to retire. The biggest red flag in our consultation was that it was "too good to be true". On a cold call he spoke to me on the phone for more than 6.5 hours, telling me that he would represent me and going through my entire case file with me and the history of my entire conflict.... He assured me that the next day we would sign a contract, pay the retainer and begin work. I woke up to find a rejection email from him on the basis that even though he believed me, and money wasn't an issue, he has "too much secondary trauma" watching clients get chewed up by a corrupt system and he didn't want to watch it happen to me. Imagine a paramedic arriving at a car accident and saying "I am tired of watching people bleed out." And then getting in the ambulance and driving away. If David truly has this level of secondary trauma then he needs to retire. If he lied about his reasons for declining, he needs to retire. If he is in the habit of taking up 6.5 hours of prospective client hope and time just because he likes talking on the phone and making false promises, he needs to retire. Maybe he was a capable or even amazing litigator once. He is now apparently a cynical pessimist, disinterested in doing hard work, and declaring up front that he expects to lose complex litigations.

At first, David Kontos handled my case professionally and well. However, towards the end, I had modifications to put into the parenting agreement, and he never bothered to send them to the judge!!! He totally messed up the plan, even allowing my ex to move the kids hours away from me. Horrible attorn...ey, AVOID.

In a nutshell, save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere for legal assistance. I hired David Kontos to help me with a child support modification brought on to me by my ex-wife. During the trial, the numbers were changed by the commissioner. David and the opposing attorney scratched out the numbers... and hand wrote in more. Those were scratched out and a new total number was written in for both kids. Fast forward to today, three years later. My ex-wife got mad and put me into DHS for collections. Now the sloppy scratched out handwritten information does not meet the DHS requirements. This is causing DHS to garnish twice as much as the court order due to their processes and procedures. When I called David an spoke to him, he asked if his staff had contacted me back. They did not. So, in speaking with him, I explained my issue. He mentioned that he could file some kind of case to make the modifications. He indicated that this would be at extra costs. I told him that I expected him to resolve this for free as I had paid him to represent me and get the paperwork submitted to the courts properly so that it would be filed correctly. He essentially told me that getting it done for free would not happen. I then critiqued his work saying that it was sloppy and not acceptable by DHS. He hung up on me. I called back and he did not answer. I left a message indicating that I was giving him the benefit of the doubt about the disconnect and that I wished to continue speaking to him in order to resolve this. It has been two days, I have called again and left a message with the staff. At this point I do not feel that he will be contacting me and is trying to wash himself of me since I refuse to pay him more for what should have been done correctly the first time. I will now have to either hire another attorney or take time off from work to attempt to resolve this mess myself in the King County Court system. He and his office are NOT professional. He should not be used. I cannot recommend him to anyone. Additionally, when reading the other reviews, he seems to be this way with others. Please save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere for legal assistance.

Mr. Kontos was referred to me by a work associate. He was very knowledgeable and personable when I first consulted him about my current parenting plan. Things changed once he had the retainer. Literally, nothing was done except the occasional email. The only thing that he and his firm did VERY... well, was rack up billable hours (and I'm still confused by this as they didn't do anything). I would not recommend this attorney to anyone. I honestly think, a person with average intelligence (or above) would be better off representing themselves.

Mr. Kontos represented me in a very complex divorce case. My experience in working with Mr. Kontos was mixed. On one hand, I believe Mr. Kontos to be generally well informed in the area of family law. Mr. Kontos style is very laid back and not particularly insightful or strategic. He knows the law, b...ut doesn't have (or chooses not to use) the sort of strategic or creative legal approaches that could improve a client's outcomes. He is the sort of attorney that just thinks the system is against him (and his client) so there really isn't a reason to fight. For some, I suppose that this is a good approach. For me it was not. I needed someone that would fight hard for me and was willing to take risks. Mr. Kontos was more interested in protecting his professional reputation than he was getting me a good result. On more than one occasion he refused to utilize a legal strategy because it would, "make him look bad" or because he didn't think it would work. None of the strategies were at all unethical, but they would have required him to step outside of his comfort zone and being more aggressive. On one occassion, I asked him to file a motion to temporarily modify the parenting plan. He did so, but then circumstances changed with the case. At that point (on the day of the hearing), after he had spent thousands of dollars preparing the motion he wanted to withdraw the motion. I insisted that he proceed even if it meant that we lost. The money had been spent, I reasoned, so why not give it a go? He begrudging relented and my motion was approved much to his surprise. As I stated before, my case was very complicated and needed imagination and aggressiveness to maximize outcomes. The result was not the worst it could have been, but it certainly was nowhere near the best. The, "that's the way it goes" approach that Mr. Kontos exhibited would lead me to avoid him in the future. I would not recommend David Kontos.