I would not recommend Johnson Law Group. Jacqueline Zenon told me that the retainer was set based off of the estimated amount it would cost for my case. She also stated that if I didn't pay the fees, they could just be taken out of my retainer. I had the impression that give or take a few hundred dollars, it was mostly going to cost $2,500.00 to file for guardianship. Jacqueline also told me that I needed to get started right away on filing my petition because it usually takes 90 days. I decided to go with them because Jacqueline responded quickly, was very friendly, and even offered me a payment plan for the retainer. They had high ratings, and they were the quickest firm to reach out to me after my inquiry. I really felt like they cared, would work with me, and help me along the way.
I started out with Mark Galler. After a month of working with him, I learn that there is a conflict of interest with the firm and that his paralegal shared confidential information with the conflicting party. Then on the day I had a scheduled meeting with him, I was notified by email--not phone--that my appointment was canceled, that Mark was no longer with the firm and that I needed to decide if I was staying with Mark, Johnson Law Group, or going with another firm. I had to call them to ask what that meant and what would happen to my retainer.
Nonetheless, I didn't feel like I could go with Mark because he didn't communicate anything with me, my retainer was with Johnson, and it was already 30 days in to the 90 days of filing. So I stuck with Johnson Law group and was reassigned to Alexandra M Archilla Rodriguez. I was charged nearly $800.00 for her to proofread the documents that Mark had initially filled out. Then she held onto the documents for over a month. She and her paralegal were charging me for random meetings they held without me, and what they did during that time, I have no idea because I had to remind them at the end of August that the temporary allocation of parental rights for the aforementioned conflicting party was expiring on September 16th. She didn't get me a court date until December 21st.
In the meantime, I get a threatening email from Emily Matlock stating they were going to quit as my representation within 5 days and recall my court documents if I didn't pay the bill immediately. I was confused because I thought the fees came out of the retainer and nothing had even been filed with the court yet. I had to quickly pay an additional $2500.00, which I couldn't use Affirm again because I used it for my first retainer (which would have been nice to know I should have applied for more) and I'm working on moving to accommodate the children, and transferring them from Colorado to the state I live in.
Not to mention the children had to come live with me in November, which required moving them and getting them set up for school in another state without any of the guardianship documents. Alexandra then asks me if they can stay living in Colorado until December 2022 when I initially hired Johnson Law Group in July 2022!
I checked in today to see what the next steps are for the hearing in two days and find out they dropped me on November 14th, mind you by email yet again, no phone call, because somehow they blew through $6,000 already having random meetings where nothing gets done; the paralegal keeps asking me for information I initially provided Mark and then had to pay for Alexandra to review it all, I was supposed to meet a deadline by Nov 30th for something; I have to file a motion to appear virtually or the judge will expect me to show up in person; and apparently there is still another document I have to fill out for each kid.
I am severely disappointed with this law firm. They have been dropping the ball since the beginning of July regardless of which person you deal with. read more
