Christopher Hans Knauf

Mr. Knauf represented us in an ADA claim related to our website. We are a small legacy business and our website wasn't readable using specific software for potential vision-impaired website visitors. It was a plaintiff's attorney known for scouring small business websites with legacy software. He hel...ped us navigate the process of updating the website to become ADA compliant and handled the case smoothly and professionally. Would highly recommend!

I sought help from Chris Knauf after he being the only name recommended by an outside agency. (It turns out the lead attorney at the agency and Knauf knew each other and previously trialed cases together, which was fine.) I sent documents to Knauf for review, but he did not touch it at all. It was on...ly until I visited his office and put down the retainer fee, that Knauf started delegating the tasks to others, especially his one associate and paralegal. Prior the incident, I somewhat believed that Knauf would care about my case, he has many cases that have gone on to trials related to disability discrimination. However, I feel that he was not honest with me. He could have told me during the consultation that my issue was not something he would be handling. He never dealt with any, but I did not know. Most Americans outside the law field wouldn’t know the difference between someone who would litigate a big case vs. someone who would simply mediate or file tort claims on your behalf. Knauf only does litigation, and that is where his reputation is. After I had some phone calls with Knauf’s associate, discussing matters that, now I believe, he was simply trained to spot does facts probably because he was still a young associate fresh out of law school. Nevertheless, it consumed both of our times, my retainer, and was not legally significant. Eventually, Knauf became very unresponsive with emails. He often told me he was handling some very big cases at the moment, implying that he was busy and just was not the right time for me. After many requests for updates, he finally told me that he did not think he can do anything with my case. And suggested that I moved on with my life. He never wrote me the summary of his views, which he told me he would. He even said he used up all of my retainers before finally realizing that there was nothing he could do. Go with Knauf if you’re discriminated against based on a physical disability and would involve a somewhat high impact in the county or local district of some sort. It has to be somewhat big, such as the defendant would be willing to settle in the million dollars range. This way, Knauf would be a good person for you. If not, and he’s depending on your $5000 retainer fee, I suggest you be very cautious. He would use it all, and then tell you don’t have any claims. I was deceived likely because of Knauf being too busy with other case and perhaps knew that I could not fund him anymore. Other experts agree that he could have told me all this from the beginning, but likely did not because he wanted to keep the retainer. Also, I fortunately did not listen to Knauf (I proceeded with a federal agency, which Knauf persuaded me not to do so), and the case has been determined in my favor. Besides losing money to Knauf, I also almost dropped what I had a claim for, if I had followed his advice, which he was actually supposed to act in good faith. Please do more research before going to Knauf. Be cautious of the free consultation, which would be hard to turn back.

I found Christopher Knauf to be more a salesman than an attorney. He will send you to his paralegals until he thinks you would likely become one of his targets. Once you meet up in person for the "free consultation," you would only find out that your case would actually take more time to go into, and... the retainer of $5,000 would be for that purpose. After an extremely long period of time, he will tell you he's too busy working on other matters, while delegating the work to one of his associates. Finally, he would come back to you saying there is nothing much he would do. Thus, your time is wasted and your retainer fee is gone. The message he will tell you at the end is nothing more than what he could have told you from the start. He just wants your retainer fees, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is his primary source of income. If you think that sounds awful, keep in mind, it's even worse to get his final message and you end up not pursuing what you thought had a strong case. It isn't about your case, it's about what is most beneficial to him given the time he wants to put in for you and the retainer fees he would get from you.

Throughout the process of the entire case, Mr. Knauf consistently demonstrated the highest level of skills and professionalism which I have ever expected from anyone. As a Marine Corps veteran I expect a lot in that regard. This is especially true when it comes to my fiancé, who is profoundly De...af, and whom Mr. Knauf represented during her case involving discrimination and other related matters. He also represented me during a deposition for the same case. I went with my fiancé to her first meeting with Mr. Knauf, to discuss the details of her case, and also to decide if Mr. Knauf would be representing her. In this regard, I am compelled to divert for a moment, to briefly discuss the two previous reviews which I read before I began to write my own review. We met Mr. Knauf before either of those two reviews had ever been posted. Given my personal experience with Mr. Knauf, I found it very easy to simply disregard those reviews for an abundance reasons, and so I will not waste any time to even discuss them, other than to say that I find them tremendously hard to believe. Mr. Knauf did not request a retainer, and he thoroughly explained what his work would most likely entail, giving us a fair idea of what his fees could amount to. He clearly described all of the possible outcomes if the case were settled. He also described what the possible outcomes might be if we went to trial, including the costs associated with doing so. Mr. Knauf went to a great expense to ensure that we understood everything. He provided a certified sign language interpreter for my fiancé, and he was happy to take whatever time was needed to explain things and answer all of our questions. By the time we left, I felt very confident that my fiancé had a very competent attorney representing her. As time went on, we had a few more questions about the case. We also had some questions concerning unrelated matters for which we sought Mr. Knauf’s advice. Mr. Knauf always returned our calls and emails, always taking the time to answer our questions. As a result, we have learned some very important things about Civil Rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act. All we had to do was take the initiative to pick up the phone or send an email, and then ask. No one can ask for more than that. When it came time for depositions and mediations, Mr. Knauf again provided a qualified sign language interpreter for my fiancé. We spent the better part of a day with Mr. Knauf preparing for the upcoming events. We both felt very confident that we knew exactly what to expect and, as it turned out, we did. No one could expect to have better counsel during a deposition than we had. Immediately after the deposition, the opposing counsel wanted to set a time for mediation. I don’t blame him. The mediation took place within a few weeks, and the case was settled in less than a month after that. The settlement not only included a monetary amount that my fiancé was very happy with, but the agreement also provided for changes in policy and the implementation of training for staff, to make sure that what my fiancé went through is now much less likely to happen to others with similar disabilities in the future. In every aspect of the case, Mr. Knauf’s work was of the highest caliber, and his respect and concern for the rights of those with disabilities is extraordinary. Really, there is a lot more I could say about the extraordinary qualities of Mr. Knauf, including the kind folks who work with him. I will just add that, if we ever need an attorney again, Mr. Knauf will be the first person we call.