Douglas Cannon Smith

Absolutely do NOT use this Law Office. The Law Office of Douglas C. Smith had me invest thousands as a retainer in February, and has had poor communication with me and absolutely zero communication with the Oklahoma court my case originated out of. I entrusted Mr. Smith with the safety and future of ...my children, as well as my peace of mind. According to the El Paso County website, my case was set for dismissal at 0830 this morning due to lack of movement. If you want an attorney who cares and invests the time and energy into your case, he is not it. I am absolutely floored that this happened.

Going through a legal matter can and will be stressful and frustrating. However, Mr. Smith and his staff helped make this process easier with their professionalism and knowledge of legal matters. Although I wanted the matter over and done with, I had to understand that some elements were out of the...ir control. The court and legal system is long and tedious, making it hard for any legal office to schedule hearings or file paperwork in a timely manner. Circumstances may be out of their control. I'd like to extend my gratitude to Mr. Smith and his staff for my successful outcome.

I hired Mr. Smith for my divorce. I did get everything I asked for. So the reason for the bad review is this. you have your initial consultation and he promises a timeline and a price. You bring the retainer the next day and the timeline just got doubled by his assistant but they don't tell you til a...fter you hand over the money. Then it runs over budget. if the case goes exactly as planned with only 4 maybe 5 hours of court time how do you not forsee that? I paid the 80 dollar consultation fee which was supposed to be deducted from the retainer which it wasn't. You will never get a response from him even if he tells you to contact him with any questions. the front office is very rude and also has trouble making contact with clients and are very condescending. last thing was after the case was done and I got custody of my son the paperwork was never sent to the attorney general. I have paid an extra month of child support to my ex wife and my son lives with me because they didn't send the paperwork. ofcourse it was blamed on the court but since it was an attorney general case the court said my lawyer was supposed to send it in. I didn't expect to lose an extra 800 dollars after I paid out all that money for my lawyer.

Douglas Smith was only interested in the case for the initial consultation. After he received my $2,000 retainer, there was no communication between him and I. He would not return my calls or emails. Douglas is disconnected with all his client's needs. He would not see me until the day of the hearin...g, which he was not prepared for. The complaint showed up without a lawyer and she was able to get $17,000 from me because Douglas was not willing to listen to my advice. He is such a bad lawyer that the idiot open his binder with all of my financial information viewable to the complaint! After she was able to get $17,000 from me and the case was over, he sent me a bill a year later asking for $41 to review the results of the case that was finalized a year earlier. do yourself a favor and find a competent lawyer! He is lazy and Incompetent!

Unfortunately, this isn't my first experience with an attorney. They're all busy, at least the good ones, and they all require a delicate balance of patience and persistence. Pester them too much with phone calls and they'll become hard to reach. Ignore them, and they'll happily put you at the bottom... of the list of important things to do. If they give you tons of personalized attention and hand-holding, you'll regret it later when you get the bill. To be successful with your attorney you need to minimize your communication by being organized, concise, and articulate. At the same time, you need to set goals and expectations and be persistent about making progress. Prior to retaining Mr. Smith I read all of the reviews and decided that the complaints were from people who just didn't "get it". I reasoned that all of those people had a bad experience because they were pests or they didn't stay on top of their own case. Either way, I understand a little about how to manage an attorney and I was optimistic that I could work with Mr. Smith. My original consultation was scheduled quickly and Mr. Smith was very articulate and accommodating. He seemed eager to take my case and he took initiative immediately. I was reasonably impressed. I armed Mr. Smith with lots of detailed information about my case and provided him with good documentation. I paid the retainer promptly and I was initially optimistic that everything was going to work out well. Unfortunately, as the case progressed, it became clear that Mr. Smith wasn't on top of all of the details. I tried my best to communicate with him and carefully balance his need to not-be-pestered with my need to be sure the case was making acceptable progress. In any case, it didn't work and I wasted a significant amount of time and money to accomplish little toward the resolution of my case. In fact, Mr. Smith failed to take some specific steps that I had made clear that I expected him to accomplish -- and that's inexcusable. To be fair, Mr. smith appears to be intelligent and caring. However, it seems that he's eager to accept new clients and too busy to provide excellent service. If you are in a collaborative situation where Mr. Smith need only grind though the customary steps to resolve your case, he's probably a good choice. Although you might not save any money if your case is needlessly prolonged. If you need an attorney that'll dig in to the details of your case and be proactive in your defense, I fear that you'll be as disappointed as I was. I want to like Mr. Smith and I would like to give him a glowing review because I think he's intelligent and capable. Unfortunately, he didn't come-through for me and apparently not for others. Beware! If an attorney can't work with a solid experienced client, a vulnerable or inexperienced client doesn't stand a chance. There's better choices out there...