Steven Scott Burkhalter

My spouse and I sought out and chose this firm together for joint counseling and financial guidance in support of a pending difficult but cordial separation after 34 years of marriage. When we arrived at Beresford Booth we were led into a conference room and were first greeted by a paralegal that pre...sented me with a waiver document and told me I must sign prior to meeting with Mr. Burkhalter and agreeing in writing that; based solely on the fact that my spouse placed the call setting appointment Beresford Booth reserved the option to represent my spouse only in the event of a future conflict. I signed the document out of trust this was a technicality, the separation would not last long and being naive to the family law system. We had never retained a family law attorney prior for any reason in our 34 year marriage. When we saw Burkhalter we discussed some assurances for my spouse and he promised us for $1,000.00 he could draft a mutually agreeable contract to serve our needs. We paid the retainer and filled out our required forms together and gave permission to complete the documents that we later signed together. (I have a $1,000.00 cancelled check drawn on our joint checking to prove this joint meeting took place.) Within six months there was a financial discrepancy favoring my spouse in the amount of $10,000.00. I called Mr. Burkhalter asking him if he could ethically talk to me about this matter, he said yes, we discussed and he agreed there had been a breach by my spouse with respect to status of funds in our accounts. Beresford Booth within one week from that conference call entered into private discussions with my spouse and ultimately filed lawsuits against me and filed for my spouse legal separation actions. They also demanded immediate mandatory support for my spouse without regard for our largest mutual obligations, including our home mortgage. The results to date have forced me to make payments to my now ex-spouse and incur debt to my now ex-spouse totaling in excess of $500,000.00; 55% of my net income and all of our liquid assets Beresford Booth could access and leverage are gone. My separate required attorney fees are now above $50,000.00. Having waited a full year since Beresford’s Booth withdrawal from this case formal malpractice claims I have written in layman’s terms are under legal review for ultimate submission and determination by the Snohomish County Bar Association. I am taking these online review opportunities and complaint steps only after repeated attempts to discuss these issues with Mr. Burkhalter and one of the firm principals, Dick Beresford, they have refused to comment or acknowledge my inquiries directly. In the interest of disclosure, after filing lawsuits against me, Mr. Burkhalter transferred this file to another attorney in the same office of Beresford Booth. Although she has been an active attorney in this matter, I do not mention her as she was never retained by me. Beginning with an honest attempt to find a trustworthy experienced attorney to counsel my spouse and me through a difficult but potentially recoverable marital dispute; Beresford Booth’s unethical shift to one sided overstated advocacy for my ex-spouse caused years of unnecessary fee generating legal actions for both sides. This entire case has left me not only financially stressed to the limit; it became so exaggerated against me I have lost a sacred and unbelievably unique father-daughter relationship with a 37 year old married daughter. I have a granddaughter and grandson I have never been allowed to meet partially because of the level of contentiousness this dissolution activity reached. If your goal in marital conflict, separation or dissolution is very aggressive irrevocable actions against your spouse or ex-spouse in family law disputes and the Snohomish County Court system perhaps this attorney may be for you. Sincerely, Bryan

I hired Scott after a brief 20min phone conversation where he appeared to be charismatic and well versed. I looked for reviews from others as this has been the only time that I needed a lawyer and the reviews I did find were all favorable at the time. However, during my time working with him I found ...this to be totally the opposite. Scott had complaints made from the counselor representing my ex-husband as he didn't provide required or requested information in a timely manner which transformed communication and negotiation of a mutually desired divorce to a situation that was more hostile between all parties where it never needed to be that way. He showed not only disrespect to myself as his client but was also unprepared for mediation discussions with very unrealistic expectations and without full understanding of the implications of getting dates correct in the documents and how that could have legal ramifications. Scott forwarded me all the documents without noticing obvious discrepancies which made for significant impacts on progress during mediation. This showed a definite lack of attention to detail and preparation. Emails were forwarded to me from the other attorney without any "counseling" or any information from him as how to proceed. Scott asked what I wanted to do without even providing any counsel me but he charged me as if he did provide me with some counsel, just for a forwarded email. Scott also didn't admit to his mistakes. He didn't share critical information with the opposite counselor and when I inquired if information had been shared, I received no response. When confronted about other mistakes, he also claimed that I had "buyers remorse", which I felt to be a completely inappropriate statement for a lawyer to express in that manner to his client.   Scott didn't present me with his bill on a timely and consistent matter, even when I asked him to do so. His billing was erratic and wasn’t accurate. He charged for calls never made, emails that had no relevant or billable information and all of the emails still had to be checked all the time by myself. Scott was never prompt to answer any emails or calls relevant to the case but he did promptly respond to billing issues.   Once my third big billing came, and my amicable divorce had grown over $10K already and with the amount of outstanding issues that still had to be reconciled without any clear path to close the case, I decided to fire Scott and he didn't waste a minute longer to threaten me to ask the Court for a judgement if I didn't pay full amount within hours of his text/email. I definitely would not recommend Scott as he made a bad situation into a horrible one.

Scott was a blessing to me during a very emotional divorce this last year. His knowledge, dedicated work, and honest guidance allowed me to journey through this difficult time in my own way while supporting me in every way. I highly recommend Scott Burkhalter and appreciate his honest, sensitive, an...d straight forward approach to counseling his clients.

I was in the process of retaining Mr. Burkhalter for a custody case. Unfortunately I was unable to financially make it happen. Even though I was unable to pay Mr. Burkhalter went out of his way to help with a part of the process he had become involved with before I knew I couldn't afford to go forwar...d. I appreciate everything he was able to do for me given the situation.

I reached out to Scott in Feb 2018 for help with my parenting plan. His responses took several days, but his guidance was helpful when we did connect. By June, I got no response at all to my communication. After my 3 emails and voicemail went unanswered, I had to find another attorney. This c...ost hundreds more to bring up to speed. As a single working mom with a medial condition, the extra legal costs & time spent are especially cumbersome.