I do not recommend Jolein Harro.
Ms Harro did not support cooperation between parents as stated on her website and did not suggest or support mediation that could have mitigated any court appearances and lowered costs significantly in my experience, she seemed to fuel the flames of animosity and conflict between the parents. To me, this was obvious in the mediation proceeding that she was facilitated. Ms. Harro conducted herself unprofessionally during mediation by screaming at a proposal. It was a very expensive and unproductive attempt at mediation. It felt like she was there to "punch the clock" and just bill the hours. In the end, this parenting agreement was easily settled in a mediation without her assistance or input.
Jolein made assessments about the family court case that were not accurate and where not stated as a client. She made decisions and created controversy to use as "leverage" that were not necessary and not the wishes of the client. She stated over and over again that this was needed for leverage. These bargaining chips were only for her benefit and used for controversy between the parents and to prolong the case so that she could collect a large retainer. This cost thousands and thousands of dollars and the saddest part of the whole situation is that the children suffered the most because of the financial hardship that this caused both parents. Jolein was well aware of this hardship and it did not appear to have any bearing on her decisions as a professional about how she conducted her legal advisement.
Jolein Harro did not have documents prepared and was late to scheduled meetings and late for court appearances. Jolein gave me legal advice about a routine court document filing process. I inquired with the court about a routine matter, the court gave the conflicting instructions from what Jolein had stated. The misinformation that Jolein provided prolonged the court proceedings, and created more work for me. At a scheduled mediation, she was 30 minutes tardy at a cost of $500 per hour, this was the amount required for the mediator plus the cost for her legal support at the mediation. At one appointment, while I was waiting approximately one hour in Ms. Harro's reception area because she was late, her legal team openly discussed the very private details of another clients case including the names of people, hospital, and mental health information without the attempt to keep the conversation confidential (the office doors were open and the attorney's and staff were talking loudly between offices while still in their own perspective offices). At the same time there was another client in her reception area signing documents and again talking about specifics of his case in my presence.
Jolein Harro did not have the "best interests of the children" in the forefront, from my experience with her. Ms Harro did not make suggestions or support issues that the other parent presented in reference the parent's inability to parent in a safe and effective manner. Theses issues were documented and included; a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, not fully disclosing all income and assets on the sworn financial statement, and a history of erratic and abusive behavior. I educated myself and did comprehensive research on the family court process including speaking with many "experts" that are contracted in the Allocation of Parental Responsibilities settlement proceedings in Colorado. I did this investigation because I felt like I was compelled to learn the basic and straightforward information that an attorney discloses in a forthright manner. I feel that I would have been much better served without Jolein Harro.
Her office drafted a parenting plan that reminded me of a document scanned and uploaded prior to the computer era. The parenting draft included many irrelevant mandates, outdated proposals that were unrelated to my case and did not pertain to modern family court legal proceedings. It was difficult to read because the directives, format, and type font was similar to a circa 1980's outline. She then billed for the hours to draft the unusable parenting plan, which took her months to complete. She gave unreasonable expectations that were not reality based to try to extract more attorney interaction to add billing hours and collect fees.
In my experience Jolein Harro seems most interested overcharging legal fees, not being prepared for appointments or court, prolonging the process, wasting long periods of time waiting in her office while she provided inept and inaccurate legal advice that prolonged the case for much longer than needed and ate up a large retainer, the funds that would have been better spent on the children. There were many more incidents that I consider incompetence and legal blunders, what I have provided about my interaction with Ms. Harro illustrates in my experience a pattern of irresponsible and negligent attorney behavior. read more
