Very unprofessional, extremely rude and insensitive, and the worst attorney experience I have ever had. I would not recommend him to anyone ever.
Jim Rockefeller drove my wife and I's bill to $7,676.60 for a Contempt action against my wife's ex-husband who was refusing to return her son from visitation (around $1,500 and he appeared at one court hearing), and a Modification of Visitation action (around $6,100 and he did not appear at any court hearings). His rate is $250 an hour. He was our attorney from January 2018 to March 2019.
He was always rude to us during teleconferences and drove my wife to the point of tears every single time. From the very first consultation meeting she left the office crying and was told by the woman at the front desk that that is common. He insulted her way of speaking, insulted her intelligence, and made us feel like it was our fault we were in this situation even though it was the ex-husband refusing to return her son. We should have known then, but we wanted someone who would fight hard in the court for us, so we decided to try and bear with his attitude and insults towards my wife. Another record of his unprofessional insults, according to the ex-husband Jim called either him and his wife or their lawyer (I can't recall which one) "retarded."
He ignored our emails and questions about our case, and when he did reply he would randomly choose only one question to answer in a short, unsatisfactory and useless way. But while he was difficult to get a response from, he routinely threatened to drop us as a client for not responding to him quickly enough and billed us $125 each time for the 30 minutes he claimed it took him to write these generic letters.
At one point he demanded we submit proof of income and child support worksheets to his office, even though we weren't pursing any change in child support, only visitation. When we asked why these were necessary, and expressly stated to him that we did not want to have him do unnecessary work that would be billed to us (because we were getting suspicious), he was extremely rude, threatened to drop us as clients repeatedly, and told us to do it because he said so and offered no other explanation. During the holidays he sent us a letter and gave us a date that he would drop us by if we didn't submit the requested documents. That date was the next day, and we were traveling across the country on a family vacation. He scared the hell out of us all because we weren't moving fast enough for him.
He also demanded those same documents of the opposing counsel, telling them that WE were the ones who wanted to see if we should modify child support. When we finally caved and sent him the documents under threats of him withdrawing as our counsel, he told us that there was very little difference in child support and that it would not be worth pursuing. He then tells the opposing counsel that WE were the one who were not choosing to pursue modifying child support. Those were our wishes from the very beginning and he ignored them. He bullied us into getting what he wanted and lied to the opposing counsel about the situation to cover his ass.
In March 2019 he actually did withdraw, but for no other reason we can tell other than he ran out of money he could make off of us effectively. We had a Parenting Plan all negotiated and agreed to by both parties, and while waiting for the next steps he just disappeared. He did not send an email, or call, or make any of his usual relentless attempts to reach us stating his intention to withdraw. Instead, he sent a letter TO OUR PREVIOUS ADDRESS so that we wouldn't get it or have any knowledge of it. By law we are allowed 10 days to contest his motion to withdraw, but because he intentionally sent the letter to the wrong address and didn't bother to call or email, we missed that window. 3 weeks later he sent us a copy of his motion to withdraw, the granted order on the motion from the judge, and the bill, effectively getting away with over $7,500 for a job he didn't finish. It was then we were made privy to upcoming court dates and deadlines that we had no idea about because he never told us. He kept tight control while he could make money off of us, then left us without a paddle when it wasn't lucrative enough for him anymore.
He is the blackest chapter of our lives. We are now in debt and still struggling with the ex-husband on these same issues because there was so much miscommunication and lack of progress. Don't trust this small, insufferable, sad excuse of a man. You're better off representing yourself. read more
