Zu Ling T.
Shady law firm
In 2023 the biological father (whom I never married) hired a lawyer for custody of my daughter. I was naive and needed guidance and hired Chris Adkins. During my negotiation for the Temporary Parenting Arrangement I notice Chris did not negotiate the terms of the TPA draft or provide any legal guidance regarding the written terms. The father is an airline pilot, and he gets to choose monthly custody schedules. I am always on standby having no ability to make plans. Yet Chris did not challenge. I told Chris that my one-year-old daughter was still very young and cries out with unfamiliar person. I need time to sooth her before our exchange. But he never passed my concern to the other lawyer. I was demanded to hand over the child at 9AM promptly the next day. It hurt me deeply to see my baby cried very bad that day and thereafter and I can do nothing to help her. I and my husband spent weeks gathering and labeling all necessary documents, but Chris still show up in court unprepared. We observed him often flipping pages making the judge waited. We worked so hard and spent so much money only to witness this very poor performance by Chris in court. The other lawyer was precise and to the point. Chris made me look bad on the stand. He kept pressing me to provide details I had no ability to answer. Chris didn't EVEN REMEMBER MY CHILD'S NAME in court! He kept confusing her first name with mine and fumbling her name, and kept apologizing. Yet my daughter is the most important person in our cases! On the surname change motion, Chris quietly and nervously advised me in private that the other party needed an affidavit from me and must go through "many hurdles" to proceed and we can postpone it indefinitely. NOT true! It turns out the court sent the signed order from the judge to the Division of Vital Records to have my child's surname changed. That's it, no affidavit or BS is required that Chris advised. His paralegal Ana didn't prepare certain charts for Exhibits in court which I have prepared. I pointed this out. At first, she insisted said documents were included in Exhibits which we confirmed were not. Eventually they distributed the missing documents on the next court date. Clearly, these people are not doing their jobs and not take accountabilities. I spent over $70,000 dollars on this firm, but have NOT gotten one judgement in my favor! They also overcharged. For instance, Chris charged me 8 hours for the 3 hours of the second court date. Another lawyer pointed out that Chris charged me .3 hour to review a one-page document that should takes 5 minutes. I spent a lot to prepare the Motion for Contempt charges against the father. Yet Chris never mentioned to me that the motion will be withdrawn. Only IN court did Chris told me it must be withdrawn to "not rub the judge's the wrong way". This is a hint of how manipulative Chris is. In addition, Chris never sends me the final draft for permanent custody to review. I found out from the biological father, telling me the judge had signed off the order! Some items stated by the judge were intentionally left out by the father's lawyer, such as "Father cannot have more than 50% custody on any given month". Father now takes advantage of the omission. Chris DIDN'T BOTHER TO CHALLENGE OR REVIEW THE FINAL DRAFT! This wrecked the livelihood of my child and me and billed me for the time he never worked. During my most vulnerable periods of 3 years, Chris has cheated me out of thousands of dollars on several occasions by overcharged fees, and for works he never performed. It seems whatever comes along from the opposition lawyer, Chris either ignores or accepts, always kept me in the dark and only for me to find out after the facts that ruled in favor of the other party. My current husband submitted financial documents during discoveries, but Chris's people still asked him for them. The Motion to Quash that Chris filed for my current husband was filed after the 10 days allowable grace period. Now I know Chris did many things to take advantage of me when I was most fragile and desperate.