Reviews

Be very careful when hiring an attorny in Hawaii. Worst experience of my life I was lied to, threatened, and downright scammed.

I have worked with many lawyers in my life from Home Sales & Buys, Medical, Estate, Business, Litigation and Trademark that have all been professional experiences. My Experience with William Dean was not professional in my opinion, If anything I felt his professionalism ended once he obtained retainer and contract. Avvo has made it hard to describe my horrible experience while staying within their "play nice" policy so I'll use a hyperbole or a metaphone; If I were a teacher and this review were a school report, I would give him Failing grades for attendance, playing well with his own client, attention to detail, following direction, inability to perform, and frankly I'd want to talk to his parents for being a Bully. I will say in all my research after ending our contract, had I read the interview done with William Dean, by Tom Luety, Journalist for the Billings gazette in Montana, prior to hiring Mr. Dean, I would have at least seen the tip of the iceberg as to how things might unfold in an unwanted way. Then again if I read that published interview provided by William Dean himself ... I certainly wouldn't have hired him. hindsight is 20/20, but we can always share what we see with others.

I hired Mr Dean to represent me in my divorce. I was very distraught at the time I hired him and took him from a recommendation from his paralegal. Once I gave him a retainer, the lack of communication started immediately. He told me he was too expensive for me and to talk to his paralegal. That worked for a while then she stopped communicating. He contacted me 15 minutes prior to our first court hearing to get information! He was completely unprepared for our hearing. I was shocked. Then he took $3000 more from me to represent me for a Pre Decree Relief trial which he later cancelled. He told me we would lose. It was an uphill battle to get my own lawyer to fight for me. And he never did. This was not a complex case- no children or property involved. He didn’t want me as a client any longer and called to tell me since I had ‘inadequate funding’ that he was turning me over to another lawyer in his office mid case. I wanted to get out of this agreement with him as there was no belief in my case and I was treated terribly the entire time because I didn’t have a ton of money. He knew this taking my case. He told me initially, he’d get me half’ and that my legal fees would be ‘paid from the marital estate’ , neither happened! In the end, I ended up with $10,000 as they lost my case. It took 11 months of dragging on. I don’t know who was worse- the jerk I was divorcing or my lawyer. The frosting on this cake is a bill that I received for $14,000. It overlapped my first bill in dates. Who does two concurrent bills and doesn’t tell you about the ‘second one’? When I called to inquire about this interesting bill, Mr Dean told me ‘if there is an issue with your billing, we simply don’t need to represent you’. I was over billed $10,000! My lawyer fees went from $350 an hour to $450 per hour and my paralegal fees went from $125 hr to $300 per hour! Truly unbelievable. Do not use him. Run the other way. A big, huge regretful experience.

My divorce turned out very badly. W Dean agreed to handle my divorce based on his recommendation to file on the basis of Financial Waste. Because I explained that the defendant had stolen nearly a million $ of our joint earnings and savings, by wire transferring fund into secret accounts. I provide Dean with documentation to support my claims, trust account docs, copies of bank statements, all of which he ignored. Jus 1 week after charging me $4000 to retain him, he immediately changed the plea to Uncontested and from that moment on did nothing he claimed to do for me. He took the side of the defendant , refusing to subpoena our bank records, and filed the statements the defendant made with the court with no verification or docs of any kind. He failed to provide me with copies of filings, so I had no idea of the falsehoods that he submitted to the judge until after filing the final motion. I was burdened with overwhelming financial obligations that Dean added into the divorce without telling me, and rushed me into signing late at night waking me up to do it. I assumed it was the same divorce I read 2 weeks earlier, but it wasn't, he had completely altered it and insisted I sign right away not giving me time to read it first. A year and a 1/2 later I am still struggling to make ends meet, am in serious debt, get no support and did not even recover funds that I spent to maintain the house and pay defendants mortgage while still married. Mr Dean did not fight for me and ignored all evidence I presented to him to build my case. 08/09/2023 Update to this review In 06/2022 I paid Mr Dean $2000 to represent me in a Post Divorce Modification, he accepted the $ and agreed to do it. Several days later he wanted another $2000, but as he did not effectively represent me in the divorce, had submitted false information to the court, information from the defendant whose word he took over mine his paying client, I did not want to give him any more $ and asked that he call me to go over his Post Divorce strategy. He ignored me. For 2 weeks he ignored me and then sent only emails that I pay the defendant $50,000. but would not tell me what the $50,000 was for. He refused to write up a contract for the $50,000 payment to confirm what I was paying for. I repeatedly asked him if it was for a "quit claim deed to the house I was living in, and again he ignored me. I said I am not paying the defendant who stole over $400,000 of my earnings in a secret Morgan Stanley account in his own name any more $. So Dean fired me. I just went to court 8/07 representing myself since Dean kept my $2000 never refunded me. The 1st words out of the defendant's mouth were, I want William Dean here to represent me and the judge gave him permission to hire the attorney that I had already paid to help me, the one who's ineffective, inadequate representation in the divorce, forced me into bankruptcy and homelessness. Obviously the great rapport between Dean and the defendant caused him to abandon any effort to help me. I recommend staying as far away from this duplicitous, conniving schemer whose bottom line is who has the most $, and has dubious motives as an attorney. He seems to resent women, especially women who are professional and run a sucessful business. I supported my ex, his adult son, and myself for 8 years on my salary, because my ex had hidden $ in secret accounts he wanted for himself and contributed nothing towards our house hold since 2014. Dean did less than nothing for me. I could have done better by myself.

I am a disabled vet. I hired him in my divorce action because a paralegal recommended him. I cannot seem to find Mr. Dean. I paid Uber to drive me to his office, but his has no office on the Big Island. He lists his office on Kilauea St. ??? I call him on the phone, and he rudely says, “can’t talk now.” This has happened six times in three weeks. He told me on our first tel con he would help me with a caregiver thru the VA, but that was weeks ago. He did however take my retainer via aAmex over the phone. I really would not hire him again. By the way, I have yet to actually meet him.

William dean knows his stuff very well. I’ll recommend him very highly. He treated us like family. I been told by other Attorneys that they can’t do anything but dean took the case and made a good case out of it Thank you William dean Sincerely Danford Aguiar