Douglas Lawrence Shaw

Well, I will give an honest review from my experience. I often feel people only post reviews to complain never give compliments or credit when it is due. But my father and I hired Mr. Shaw back in 2013 i want to say. He assisted me in establishing child support for my daughter who was a infant at the... time. He was through and very confident. On my court date we went in and he handled the matter very professionally. I would use him again to assist with a modification, but to my knowledge he has moved on and no longer handles family law. I do need to contact him some how to release my case. I am not sure if he has the same cell number or not. But maybe I will get a response to my review. But anyway, congratulations on moving up and on to new milestones.

At first Doug was hired by my mother and sister to establish temporary guardianship of my daughter. Despite the fact that Doug doesn't take the time to listen to all aspects of your situation, everything seemed to be going great until the second hearing. He was supposed to have subpoenaed several c...haracter witnesses, but I'm guessing due to his vacation to Mexico, decided to instead just fall back on the fact that my ex was facing a drug charge. So I didn't find out that my ex had beat her charge until the day of the hearing. At which he proceeds to explain that there was no other option but to arrange a formal visitation agreement, because he had not subpoenaed a single witness, or prepared in any other way, that I could tell. He didn't even know she beat the case until that morning. During this whole process he had quoted me a price on getting my paternity established, so I gave him a check for slightly over that amount before the second hearing. He assured me the paperwork was getting done and even walked over to the fax machine as if he was doing it at that moment. Come time of the second hearing he was still saying that he only represented my mother and sister and told me I hadn't paid in full for the paternity. After reminding him of our agreed price, he told me that he had got me confused with another client and assured me it would get done asap. Fast forward several months and numerous phone calls I still hadn't heard a single thing about what was going on, so I went to his office and told his secretary that I would no longer be requiring his services and requested my money back and a write up of to where the money for the guardianship case was allotted. Supposedly, going into the second hearing my family was paid up through a whole day of witnesses and whatnot and my paternity was in the process and paid up. So he completely dropped the ball on everything pertaining to that hearing and paternity. I have yet to see where any of that money went, my paternity documents or any of the money back for services NOT rendered. If you truly care about your family, I would suggest you find a lawyer that does the same. Douglas Shaw is not that lawyer. I truly hope this review helps even just one person not make the mistake of hiring him that I did. FYI, you can legally fill out and send in a paternity affidavit on your own for $10-15 and get it back in a reasonable amount of time. Don't let an attorney charge you $1000+ and sit on it for months.

Doug filled in for my primary attorney last minute because of a schedule conflict. He grasped the entirety of my situation very quickly and stepped in like champion. He made sense of a multi-layered divorce situation and help push my case forward in a positive manner. He sees the big picture. V...ERY calculating and client oriented.

I hired Shaw to help me finalize my divorce. He agreed and actually got a final hearing date set for me! I had high hopes for him in the beginning until a few days before the final he asks he come in. He explains to me how my financial situation will be if I win and if I lose and then has me sign a p...aper to give the house to my ex in 60 days so it would allow me time to save for an apartment. It sounded great and I trusted he had the best interest for me. Until he moved the final hearing 3 months later! Less than 24 hours of the final hearing he emails me saying he had a more important case. I asked him if I am still having to move and he says yes and I don’t have any money to do so since the final was moved 3 months later! He seem annoyed when I emailed him on what is going to happen. I hated talking to him because he seemed irritated and bothered. The emails got worse the closer the date came for me to move. He would blame me as if it was my idea which it wasn’t. Then I was required to go to court to explain why I’m not moving out and he was so unprofessional. He sends me a vague email about this new hearing and when I ask details about what this hearing was about, he acts frustrated. Then he sends me an email at 4:30 in the morning being rude and then an hour later now 5:30 in the morning he sends me the court document. DON’T EMAIL HIM If you look he puts on all his emails that you can not use them against him! I am now homeless with my two daughters 6 and 3. We are forced to leave our home two weeks before Christmas to live my parents. And I got fined $1000 for my ex’s attorney fees. I don’t understand why he acted this way towards me. I paid him the complete retainer fee. I wasn’t rude to him even through all of his crap. I just hope he doesn’t repeat this to anyone else.