Oh dear God in heaven yes. Mine rude, nauseating lawyer just got 45K for divorcing me, right out of the house equity being held in escrow before I saw a penny. When I called to ask a question about the settlement, he was so impatient an d rude I hung up the phone sand cried my eyes out.

He was VERY nice when I signed that retainer priming him his cash. He witnessed the emotional battering I took in the year it took to finalize that mess. He saw my husband try everything in the book to demean and discredit me

He got his money, and apparently he no longer feels the need to feign being a human being.

As I said, I bawled my eyes out.

Sorry for typos Im using my phone

GRRRR...I feel your frustration. I have a crappy lawyer. I feel as though she is dragging her feet. She never returns my calls. Pisses me off. And for example...this week my H is getting a room mate, which will take over my daughters room. Well my daughters bedroom set is still in the bedroom, and I had told my lawyer that I needed to get it out by the 1st. Well she filed some type of papers....then went on vacation this week. So I have no idea what to do.....my H is telling me to come get all my things, but wont let me have some of the stuff I want....neway....she should be here to advise me. That's what i'm paying her for. And she said she gave me her cell phone number for a reason....never to hesitate to call her......WHATEVER.....I've called her every day this week...no phone call back.

I wish you the best....and it's terrible what we are going though. But I have to stick with the lawyer I already have, because I have already given her 1500 bucks.

I think divorce lawyers are a scam. I was given a lawyer at a nominal fee per hour through a domestic violence organization. I paid this woman almost $2000 over the course of a year and still wasn't divorced. I was pissed that I would get charged EVERY time she called the ex OR he called her. He didn't have a lawyer.

She stopped calling me back because I owed $1500 all because she came to court with me when I filed for modification and contempt charges on the ex through the state agency... she charged for the entire day and I could have handled it myself.

After all that, in the end I ended up dragging the ex into court for another modification of child support he had ordered (he wasn't going to go because he was hung over and afraid he was going back to jail because he owed so much in back pay) but I literally dragged him out of his house by his ear first thing in the morning with a mission.

He and I filed a uncontested divorce that day, went before the judge that day... done, done, done! I should have just done that from the beginning. NOW, I am waiting for the ex to take a mandated parenting class in order for the courts to finalize the divorce on the grace period date - May 13. Of course, he hasn't taken it... so I will have to go BACK to court and ask the judge to put an order on him. Its always something...

My attorney frustrates the hell outta me sometimes. I get really beside myself when he doesn't respond to my emails with 48 hours or so, and when he doesn't return my phone calls in a timely manner. I have kinda gotten into a routine whenever I need to hear back from my attorney. I will call both of his phone numbers, and leave messages if he doesn't answer. Plus I will e-mail him with the same request. If I don't hear back from him, I will go into my e-mail to the "sent messages", and find the message I sent him, open it and click the "forward" button. I will literally forward the message to him again for every day that i don't hear back from him. Works like a charm...

I became friends with the lawyer's secretary. I mean it; after all, they do all the work outside of court. She changed jobs right after my divorce and I will still be sincere friends with her. We plan to take her boat out on the lake and do some bbqing this summer. She said that rarely did she have anyone who really talked to her, even to greet her nicely, that people were in a bad mood and often demanding. She did a lot for me that didn't go on the books. My lawyer could be brash, forgetful and talkative (on my dime), but I have to say, I came out of this divorce financially a lot better than I would have had I done it my way, without a lawyer. So the retainer was $2500 and then I was billed an additional $371 after the dust settled. It pays to do as much with your case as you can, too. Be prepared, write all of your questions down and don't be afraid to ask the office personnel what the sequence of events could be. Ask how they are, mean it and bring by a candy bar or whatever you learn they like.....kindness and bribes can go a long way!

Although my attorney was a partner in his firm, I figured that he had to have someone to report to. I went on-line, got the name of one of the senior partners, sent him an email and all of a sudden my attorney became more responsive.

I wish I would have thought about doing that from the first sign that my attorney was going to be a jerk, but I didn't. Maybe this tip will help some of the rest of you.

After reading this and hearing some of the prices other folks have paid for divorces, I'm thankful that we are mediating ours. We'll do most of our negotiating at home, take any issues into the mediator for a few sessions ($400/hr) and then the agreement will be drafted for about $1,200. We'll then have to take our agreement to individual attorneys for agreement reviews, just to protect ourselves individually, but it should be a heck of a lot less than litigating the whole thing. No retainer required. No charge for email questions and answers or phone call questions within a reasonable time limit (under 15 minutes or so). We'll see how it goes... There are bound to be things we butt heads over but neither of us wants to put two attorney's kids through college as a result of our divorce tragedy. Neither of us is really "winning" here (although my husband wants out, while I do not) and we see no point in having us go deeper into debt over this divorce and then have to carry its burden into future years. I'm sorry for those of you who have to litigate and deal with the greedy lawyers you've encountered.