I hired John personally for my divorce which settled out of court. He did okay. I referred a family…read moremember to him for a divorce and custody case. He is still waiting 2 years later to see his daughter. Very disappointing

From the owner: Law partners John M. Wilka and Mark James Welter have over 20 years of legal experience each. They…read morehave built their practice by relentlessly pursuing justice for their clients and meticulously preparing each case as if it were going to trial. Wilka & Welter focus their practice on personal injury, workers' compensation, criminal defense, family law, and civil litigation.

I have a hard time getting a sitter for short appointments. Imagine my relief upon getting out of…read morethe elevator with my toddler ( who was thrilled to go up five whole floors!) and walk into a comfortable office with attentive staff and updated magazines. The cherry on the cake was mark welter, while helping me with a claim pulled out a bucket of things for said toddler to play with while he kept things short and to the point. While brief, the experience was painless and simple. Great job, Wilka and welter!

I deeply appreciate the great advice and service that Mary Ash provided to one of our family…read moremembers. The firm is very lucky to have such a great partner. I recommend Mary to anyone that is looking for a super competent attorney!

Absolutely horrible. It's often said that you get what you…read morepay for, and ERLS seems to prove that adage. Though East River Legal Services may seem good by their mission statement, i.e. providing services for low-income persons, what they provide is absolutely not worth the bargain. I honestly feel really bad for anyone that has to rely on these folks. Providing substandard services to low income persons is not a valuable service, but often even worse, as they put people through the ringer, often adding to stress and frustrations to already stressful and frustrating situations. Upon contacting ERLS I spoke with an intake person, whom did a thoroughly lousy job of listening and gathering facts. They advice they gave ran contrary to a federal agency they were supposed to be providing advice about. And they still cannot understand that fact. That gave me paperwork that was not required nor appropriate to my situation, as confirmed by this agency, but just continued to push that incorrect paperwork. It's like they are one-trick ponies, whom can only comprehend doing things one way, even if that way is wrong. They are most completely incapable of properly analyzing specific situations and proceeding in logical manners based on those specifics, but just keep their blinders on, pushing what is incorrect. You know you've got a problem when supposed "experts" are presented with relevant state statutes, but then totally ignore those statutes and respond with banal "Nuh-uh", rather than intelligent & fact-based responses. After receiving such substandard & absolutely incorrect information, I decided to read reviews about ERLS, and didn't find much good at all. In fact most every review I've read has been negative. Reviewing ERLS IRS form 990 tax data, they seem to exist most solely to receive government grants, then spend most of that on staff salaries, rather than on resources for those that need the most help. It makes me so sad that places like this exist, pretending to do good when they actually do far more harm.