|
|
HORRENDOUS! Please take a moment to read what I went through...
|
After going through months of battling with my ex just to be able to see my kids I decided action needed to be taken, but like most father's, had no idea where to begin. I unfortunately do not make enough money to afford a lawyer so I found out about this
organization online and decided to give it a try. BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. When the paperwork was first emailed to me it was very brief and didn't have any specifics for what I was asking for at all. This made me question if the paperwork was correct.
Sure I was asking for joint custody and visitation but that is ALL the paperwork stated. It didn't state that I was asking for every other weekend or shared holidays or anything. I called to question this and got a response of "we can not give legal advice"....
this is when I first started to question why I ever paid these people close to $1000 to help me. So I started doing my own research and contacted a wonderful lawyer in my area who felt bad that I got myself into this mess and offered to meet with me for FREE
to go over the paperwork I had received (yes, there are still nice people in this world after all!). I met with her and she said the paperwork was awful, just as I had suspected. She changed pretty much all of the affidavit and petition (the 2 documents I
brought to her). She was incredibly helpful and I sincerely wish I had the money to hire her! I emailed About the Children to let them know what this lawyer said so that maybe they should question using this "attorney" in the future that filled out my paperwork.
I received a NASTY reply back from someone named Danielle which stated as follows: "We are not going to rewrite your documents according to what an attorney you met with told you to do - GO TO THAT ATTORNY AND HIRE THEM." Nice, huh? Long story short, I finally
got the documents written to my satisfaction and they were sent to me on 4/10 and were to get here in 3-5 business days. Well, they mailed it to the WRONG address. HOW does this happen? My address is all over all of the paperwork. So after fighting with UPS
to find out where the paperwork ended up I FINALLY received my documents 2 WEEKS later! I went to file the paperwork the next day and was told that I could not even use the documents. The court needed specific documents and many, many other forms. I know About
the Children states that other forms might be needed, but this was a tremendous amount of other forms - forms that I feel an attorney in the area should know are needed... I ended up having to take a day out of work, go to the courthouse which is 2 hours from
where I currently live and file the paperwork MYSELF. I was able to use 1 of the forms that About the Children provided me. However, the Summons that they provided was for a divorce case, not something I am going through, so I had to redo that as well as fill
out all of the other forms. It took me 4 hours. I did it all myself and it was processed and filed THAT DAY. I wish I had just gone to the courthouse in the first place. They were incredibly helpful and the forms were free. I called About the Children to let
them know that I couldn't use their documents, did it all myself and made them aware that the attorney they used sent me the completely wrong Summons to which they replied that I should have noticed that! Ummm, the reason that I hired these people in the first
place was because I had no idea what paperwork to use. They refuse to give me any sort of financial compensation. They did not supply what I paid them for in the least. I am not even asking for a full refund. They can keep the start-up fee and the $25 a month
but I paid a lot of money for paperwork that I ended up filling out myself. Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation and contact the courthouse that you will be using. They are more than willing to help you. They will give you the CORRECT paperwork up front
AND help you fill it out at no charge.
|
|
|
|
Business's response - by R.E.T.on 5/14/2013
|
|
As this case is not typical, we ask that you take a few minutes to read a few of the nearly 4 dozen GREAT REVIEWS listed here (keeping in mind, most people only give reviews on 'bad experiences" with businesses) - - - - Like any business, from time to time, we DO run into challenging cases, and/or individuals with unreasonable expectations, and always attempt to fix them...------------ In this particular case, there was a lot of back and forth and document revisions that took place. - - - - We want to confirm that the heart of ATC is to help parents, not add more stress to an already stressful situation. If you are reading this review, we're confident that you know what our fees are, and that you are just confirming that ATC is a real Parental Advocate Group that helps people! - - - We are sorry that this case did not end perfectly, and wish truly this this family the best of success. - - - - Sincerely, R. Trevino, ATC
|
|
|
|
|
|