Reviews

At the end of 2021 I retained Dan Patterson to modify a prejudicial custody order my ex husband obtained under false pretenses when I was denied substantive due process and put a stop to unauthorized restrictions my ex-husband was imposing on me outside of the bounds of that custody order. Dan erroneously insisted there was nothing I could do about any of it, even my ex’s unauthorized self imposed restrictions, except wait a year after the date of the order and file a modification, which he did. Years later I discovered Dan could have intervened and did not, he could have served a cease and desist or petitioned for substantive relief of my ex’s interferences regardless of custody and he could have filed an amendment to the order to address contentions arising from the order sooner than a custody modification.,In January 2022 he filed a motion to modify custody AND ALL ANCILLARY ISSUES. Additionally what Dan should have done was petition the court to allow him to file a memorandum because the issues were far too complex and nuanced for oral argument. When the hearing actually occurred on January 4, 2024 two years later after being continued ten times Dan neglected to review his own petition for the hearing and failed to properly advocate that he requested to modify all ancillary issues in addition to custody when the ancillary issues were not modified after the hearing. In fact, Dan did not preserve any of my rights his defensive strategy as a litigator effectively amounted to malpractice. He did not advocate for my right to submit evidence prior to the last hearing if it pertains to the factors prescribed under the statute for a custody modification as permitted under IC 31-17–2-21 ( c ) or to demonstrate a pattern of parental misbehavior as permitted by case precedent Arms v. Arms or diligently pursue the court’s preferred position of awarding custody to the parent more likely to foster the relationship and involvement of the other parent as decided in In re S.M.T., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 97181,2012-Ohio-1745, 917, citing C.G. v. C.L., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 90341, 2008-Ohio-3135, 1 13. The most devastating example of Dan’s ineptitude was failing to appropriately advocate that the $10,000 custody evaluation I paid for used the specific statutory language that both my ex husband’s and his wife’s psychological testing was specifically harmful to the emotional development of our children and numerous and continuing violations and interferences amounting to substantial contempt. I served my case to Dan on a silver platter I supplied him with two PhD expert witnesses in my support, one of which Dan let fall out of our grasp by failing to utilize him in a a reasonable time frame (a year and a half), the phenomenal and thorough custody evaluation including the statutory verbage, and even supplying him with the caselaw and statutory support specific to my circumstances and did not engage in discovery or submit any evidence of the substantial and continuing changes or circumstances and violations insisting the custody evaluation demonstrated these well enough but failing to appropriately advocate this to the court. He also at times went even a whole year without sending me any invoices and frequently erroneously charged me for things that did not occur (such as charging me over $1000 for attending a hearing on a date that did not even occur because it was continued). After retaining Dan for more than two years absolutely none of the contentions I retained him for (at a minimum stopping my ex’s unauthorized interferences and modifying prejudicial provisions of our custody order) were addressed by his actions or the order , he insisted his services were concluded because the hearing was commenced. He left me high and dry worse off than he found me because I was in the hole all the legal fees, evaluation fees, and expert witness fees and two years of evidence and incidents denied intervention and he had the audacity to bill me for it and never filed a change of judge, which he recommended, but did not do.

Dan had requested my daughter come into the office to speak with her about a custody case that he was retained for. I thought nothing of it and ran some errands while he spoke with her. About 10 minutes after I left I received a text from my daughter telling me she was ready to be picked up. When I got back, she was in tears. I never in a million years would have dreamed why she was crying, I assumed it being over custody that he may have said something about the other party that may have upset her, but I was not prepared for what I was about to hear. Once we got a few minutes away from his office is when she told me what he had said. She Informed me that he was making very inappropriate sexualized comments to her almost as soon as I had walked out the door, and even at one point attempted to reach his hand towards, but she stood up and informed him that she would not be speaking with him anymore and walked out of the building. She met me about a block away when I picked her up. When I confronted him about it over the phone as I did not want to catch a charge by what would have happened if I went back in there, he apologized very insincerely. This could not have been the first time he has done something like this. I fear for any more clients that come in that have children of any age as this man is a PREDATOR. I am thankful my daughter was old enough to know what happened was wrong and was able to safely get out of his office. I can't imagine if he were to put a young child in this scenario. If you have used this man as a lawyer and brought your children in PLEASE TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN AND ASK QUESTIONS. Also, needless to say we fired him and he refuses to give us our money back.

He can’t even get a warrant, lift it for missing a court day and I was supposed to have court today and he re reschedules for next month and now I will have a warrant for a month

Dan is such an amazing attorney. He made me feel good about what I was going through and helped me in every way he could. He tells you like it is though.

Had about five attorneys before Dan. Spent four years not even so much of a phone call with my child. Dan is the only lawyer that's gotten me good results. Now I have a good court order, and get to see my child regularly. Well, when his mom chooses to obey the order.

Great job

They get r done