Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/15/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I went to ADLG seeking a divorce attorney. They assigned me an attorney I was satisfied with. By the time we were ready to go to mediation. I have a copy of the proposal. He stated that because of our limited assets it would not be a good idea to go to trial. My wife told me that she was going to drag it out as long as she could to make me pay. I received an e-mail stating that my attorney had been fired. By this time, I had invested $6042.00. My wife's attorney dropped her. She decided to represent herself. By the time the new attorney and I completed trial I had invested $22,100.00. There are no children involved. The two attorneys I went before judges with made no attempt to expedite the process. In fact, I was told not to speak unless directly questioned by the judge. When I saw that ADLG Had a similar case with BBB I was surprised. I have lots of documents to back my story.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/01/2023

  To Whom This May ************************* style="color: rgb(24, 50, 71); font-size: 14px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;">

   

  Please find our response attached to the BBB complaint ID: *******************. Please let me know if there is any additional information you need from me. Thank you.

   

  Warmest Regards,

  Business Response

  Date: 06/14/2023

  see attached response.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/14/2023

   
  Complaint: 19403489
  
  I am rejecting this response because:Parts of ADLG's response is not true or incomplete.I will be sending you more information to back up my rejection. I will send it to the fax number received from BBB.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 06/19/2023

  To Whom This May ********************* are not in the business of taking advantage of anyone, ever. The client first consulted with our firm in December 2019 and had a second consultation in June 2021. They were charged a $150 consultation fee on December 26, 2019. This payment was voided and returned to the client the same day. Our payment center can confirm this. We did not charge a consultation fee for the second time, as we extended a courtesy to the client. According to our legal agreement, that the client read in full and signed, we require a refundable retainer deposit to hire our firm. Consultation fees and Retainer payments to hire the firm are completely different. They are not the same thing, so they would never be the same amount. Retainer payments are refunded once a case is completely finished. The client was refunded by check.

  
  Clients always have a choice on whether or not they want to stay with ** - regardless of if their attorney at the time of hiring ** is fired for cause or not. We did agree to keeping the original attorneys rate, and any discrepancies in that were reimbursed to the client. 
  The clients case started low-conflict and as an uncontentious matter. Low-conflict and uncontentious cases do not require court. In December 2021, the case became contentious due to the Opposing Partys position. Subsequently, the case required mediation, and then a final trial in front of a judge because of the opposing party. By no fault of Atlanta Divorce Law Group did we prolong the case. We cannot control opposing counsels and parties. The opposing party did end up representing herself. Atlanta Divorce Law Group did everything in good faith to get this case to a resolution in a timely fashion - we have hundreds of emails to prove this. We cannot control opposing parties and counsels.

  
  The comment that the client is referring to is when they emailed and asked Hi,
  I would like to know if I need to make myself available when you meet with the judge on March 15th,or should I wait to here from you? where we responded Good Morning,
  You will need to log in as well, I will do all the speaking unless a question is directed to you. When a client hires ADLG, we are hired to represent them and speak on their behalf. In the same email, we let the client know I know it is a long process and Im sorry that their failure to cooperate is delaying the case.  Hang in there, we are moving this forward as quickly as we can. 
  
  
  
  The opposing party failed to cooperate with mandatory deadlines, completed **************** Mandatory Discovery that is required for us to negotiate a settlement and continued to delay proceedings by their demands. There were several issues at mediation the opposing party refused to even discuss which left us at an impasse. 
  We cannot bill opposing counsels or parties as they are not our clients. They did not sign legal agreements with our firm. Filing a motion for attorneys fees during a divorce case is common, and we did discuss that with our client. We have emails to prove we discussed filing for fees, not just invoicing the opposing party, as we stated we cannot do. We took an affidavit for attorneys fees to the final hearing and unfortunately, they were not granted.

  
  The clients case was resolved and closed, and the clients retainer was refunded, in full, per firm policy.

  
  Supporting documents that we can provide if necessary:
  Signed legal agreement
  Email correspondence
  Proof of refunds
  Detailed invoices stating the work that was done in the case
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/21/2023

   
  Complaint: 19403489
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The amounts I was charged by ADLG was far to much for the small case I had . Since I can't type fast, I will fax more information.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************