James Elden Keathley

In the very early stages of my case I felt comfortable and had high hopes for this attorney and felt their could be a decent outcome with this attorney for my VERY serious charges. However, when the case reached circuit court, he said I needed to call his office and set an appointment with a female... to meet with him. It has been a COUPLE MONTHS and I have not been able to reach Mr Keathley AT ALL. Years of my freedom are basically in this man's hands. As my appointed attorney, he can greatly affect the outcome of this case. This is a travesty and I hope that no one else has to feel the helplessness and disappointment that I am experiencing from this lack of professionalism and quite frankly, lack of human empathy and carelessness

I had the unfortunate situation of having him represent me as a court appointed attorney. I know im not paying him for his services but it really shows, he gave me his email and hasn’t responded to the last three i sent him nor called me when i sent him an email asking him to at his earliest conveni...ence. I had to send him my phone number as ye never gave his to me. Also he uses scare tactics to get you to take a plea deal such as the charges can get bumped up to even higher charges if i take the preliminary. Also he never sent me the police reports until i asked him to after he tried to get me to take a plea deal that made no sense to take giving what i was being accused of. Also while i was in the court room he had another client he convinced to take a plea, the charge he plead guilty to was ludicrous because with proper guidance he could have beat the charge; receiving stolen property and was arrested when trying to return it. He took the plea of receiving said stolen item even though he tried to return it and contacted the original owner to meet and return the item, the original owner never showed insted the police did. Why would he take that plea? Ill tell you why it was because of the guidance of this attorney who does not have your interest in mind if you are not forking over the money for his services. I have found him to be unprofessional and wouldn’t pay him to represent me if i had the mo ey to hire someone because in my eyes you should always do your job to the best of your ability and he does not. Save yourself the trouble and look for another attorney. If you have him as a court appointed because you cant afford someone’s services than my heart reaches out to you.