Thomas S. Olmstead

My wife contacted the Law Office of Olmstead and Somers asking if they had free consultations in which they replied they did. She set an appointment and sat down with him for no more than 30 minutes. She did not sign any paperwork or didn't discuss any price for the supposed "free" consultation . We ...decided to go to with another attorney. A few months later she received an invoice for a bill of $750.00! The bill was for "Timekeeper TO worked for 2.50 hours at $300.00 per hour" for "Conf. w/ client; Prepare temp order". Keep in mind the consultation was no where near 30 minutes and she had never agreed to move forward with this attorney, also the Temp Order was prepared by my wife and I prior to this visit. I called him as soon as we received the bill and immediately contacted the Law Office. He answered and kept repeating the phrase " why would I sit down with your wife for 2 and half hours for free." I asked him if she had signed or agreed to anything and he kept repeating the same phrase. I had also asked him about the preparation of the temp order and he immediately became silent.

I feel cheated. Tom was welcoming enough. Our initial meeting made me feel like I was finally going to have someone representing me in my divorce. Immediately after that, I found Tom to consistently be unavailable or too busy to take any questions or make any recommendations (he doesn't have a cel...l phone, either). The rare occurrences when he was available, he seemed fairly helpful. He gave lots of assurances, but never recommendations or next steps. I was happy until I realized that after over 6 months of waiting and trying to motivate my ex, her lawyer, and my lawyer to make progress that there was no active interest in my case or my well being. He wasn't even familiar with the case or my name. My questions were left to Mindy, his assistant, who gave the most minimal answers possible to get me to go away. I never received any amplifying information or help that I didn't directly think to ask for. I was always treated as an inconvenience to her. She was like a less helpful version of google, but most of the answers I needed weren't readily available online. Basically, I was on my own to navigate a difficult divorce, which I had never done before. I never received any advice on what to include or not include in my settlement offer even though I clearly needed help. I would have changed lawyers, but by the time I realized just how unhelpful they were I was approaching the end of the divorce and just used them to write out the paperwork and assist me in court. Then, when Mindy wrote out the final copy of the settlement, she misspelled my name (Bradley to Bradlie...never heard of it being spelled that way and it was only incorrect on the header). It was no big deal to me, until I was charged $50 to have it fixed. Are you f^@%# kidding me? I have no doubt that it was an intentional error made so that she could charge for another "30 minutes" of work. Also, when paying for Tom to drive to the courthouse for the hearing, I was charged for 4 hours ($1200) of driving and being at the courthouse. Port Orchard is 30 minutes away - maybe an hour if there's heavy traffic. The time in front of the judge only took about 10 minutes. I do not know what I was being charged so much for. Long story short, if you want to be treated like a person, or even not get robbed, run far and fast. I don't know if other lawyers act in a similar fashion, but I will never approach this office again. I recommend you don't either.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed with Tom Olmstead. I don't know how he performs with other clients, but for me, it was a MAJOR disaster that cost me thousands of dollars. He was not responsive to me, he did not follow through, he would not remember what he had told me previously, he would change his min...d on a strategy without talking to me about it, he did not show up on time to the court which caused me to lose by default, he did not keep his word to me on arrangements we made, he hung up on me, (and I was being polite), and then he quit on me without notice when I needed him the most. It almost seemed like he was working for my spouse rather than for me. He is a nice guy, friendly and all that, but I would never use him as a lawyer.

This lawyer took on my case in a lawsuit against my former employer. He brought on a partner to assist in the case who never really got involved. I hand fed him documnets, detailed information and questions and names for depositions. He affirmed our case was good and would give it his best effort. W...eeks go by with no calls or return calls or emails. His law partner quit mid-stream. His paraleagal was an early 20's kid who did most of the work, but had no clue as to this type of civil litigation. As months went by, we kept reminding him of expiration dates for discovery and depositions. Olmstead conducted depositions without our knowledge or presence, claiming it was his assistants fault for not calling us. This was the start of our loss. His questions at these depositions were weak and did NOT help our case. Some of the questions we provided for him in these depositions he didn't use. He said he wanted to use them at trial rather than at the depositions. During a meeting prior to the pre-trial, he promised he would call these people in for depositions and ask for a continuance. Our repeated calls to remind him to ask for this continuance and schedule dates for deposition resulted with little response or action. In fact he didn't do anything until the day of the pre-trail. The judge was furious at him for his lack of professionalism and knowledge of the system. In fact the instructions he gave us for our written statements was completely incorrect. The judge threw everything out due to hearsay. This hearsay was based on Olmsteads instructions and oversight. When the judge dismissed our lawsuit, Olmstead acknowledged he dropped the ball. His incompetence almost cost us thousands or dollars in a counter claim. Luckily the judge saw it was HIS incompetence not ours. After Olmstead was chewed out by the judge, he quickly packed his stuff and sped away in his brand new BMW. I believe he sabotaged our case because he didn't have a clue on what he was doing. He claims to be a Christian attorney with a conscience, but I think he uses the witness symbol on his business card to bait people into thinking he is trustworthy with your life and finances. If you want a pit bull for an attorney, don't choose this guy. He is verbally weak, clueless or a good liar, and non-responsive. He's a good story teller, and loves to tell you his glory days of once being a cop and a fed. Luckily it only cost me a good civil case. I'd hate to trust this guy if my life was on the line for a criminal case. Don't trust this guy, he's just another shyster lawyer.