Reviews

Our child was up for expulsion. It was for what the school considered a dangerous weapon. Mr. Harley successful stopped the expulsion and our child returned to school. He was personable and met with and discussed the case by telephone numerous times before the hearing. He worked hard in order to understand all the facts. He thought of options we never considered and we won our appeal. His fees were very reasonable too.

Honestly, hiring Mr. Harley was one of the biggest mistakes in my life. He didn't have any intention to do anything on my case. He took my $6000, and did nothing for 2 month. After initial phone conversation Mr. Harley asked me for a $1000 to start working on my case. He promised me to email our Contract and Information Release form right after the payment, insisting on the urgency to file. I paid immediately once we hang up. After my payment I haven't heard from him for 2 weeks. So, I decided to have a face to face meeting to sign those 2 forms. Mr. Harley forgot about our first meeting and asked to reschedule the day of the meeting. Again he promised to bring me the paperwork to sign to that meeting. I met with him in some random conference room. Mr. Harley told me that he just moved to this office building and that his name was not listed in the Directory yet. He didn't bring any paperwork for me to sign, asked for $5000, and promised to email me all the paperwork that evening. He also told me that he has a paralegal. Mr. Harley set several deadlines by which he will take certain steps. I didn't get any emails from him for another week after that meeting. Then Mr. Harley finally sent me an email saying that the paperwork is attached. I immediately emailed him back saying that there were no attachments. After another week I finally received promised for the1.5 month paperwork. One of the Forms had another client's name on the signature line. Mr. Harley was suppose to submit that form, but our School District was already closed for the Christmas break. Mr. Harley provided me with one excuse after another to why he haven't been working on my case: parents were sick, took vacation, Holidays, forgot we had an appointment. After the Holidays Mr. Harley disappeared for a week right when I needed a legal advice. At that point we were behind on every single deadline that Mr. Harley established for himself. I asked for my full retainer back in writing per our Contract. I was not able to get in contact with him, but I got in contact with his paralegal. The Lady told me that she was no longer Mr. Harley's paralegal. I was able to get in contact with 2 of Mr. Harley's other clients who were treated in the similar fashion. When I finally got in contact with Mr. Harley he told me in the recorded conversation that he had been sick, felling better and ready to start working on my case. He also admitted not having a paralegal. I told him that I terminated our contract a week ago, before he got sick. Mr. Harley said that he worked on my case for 7.5 hours and deducted that from my retainer. He didn't provide me with any billing or accounting statement to justify that charge. He simply wrote on the check "minus 7.5 hr". And it took me a month to get that check that I cannot even cash, because that would mean that I agree to his charge against my retainer. And such a behavior with clients seems to be systematic. He promises to handle the case, takes money, does nothing, provides excuse after the excuse, charges for "work and time" without providing any billing or accounting statements. He is trying to use his sicknesses as an excuse. But, I terminated our Contract before he got sick for failure to advance my case for 2 month, dishonesty and failure to contact me in timely manner. Now, instead of working on my case I have to work on my case of stolen retainer. After some digging I found out that Mr. Harley is one person firm. Mr. Harley doesn't have an actual office, just several PO Boxes. His upstate office located at his parent's house. Don't be like me, don't get scammed by this person.

David is an excellent attorney. I had a contract issue with my employer and David resolved it in my favor. I will refer my friends to him in the future. One of the few attorneys I've worked with that I felt actually listened to the result I wanted rather than telling me the goal. I highly recommend him.

I retained Mr. Harley in Dec 2017 and Jan 2018 for two separate cases involving employment related disputes/issues. Mr. Harley took a retainer of $2500 for one case and $3000 for the other case, he stated these were needed to hire a Private Investigator. Mr. Harley hired an investigator after many months of my questioning what progress was being made, was anything being done regarding the two separate cases,, and I received one excuse after another. First he was on vacation, then his kid was in college needing help, then he was ill, then he was in court, he had more excuses and refused to provide an accounting statement for either case. I contacted the Private Investigator myself and was informed that he did not even bother to pay the Private Investigator and suspended all work due to non-payment. Mr. Harley filed one case wrong and it was dismissed, the other case he NEVER FILED !!! He simply took money and did nothing to further the case. When confronted with this he stated he would refund the retainers, this was in November of 2018, still waiting for a refund. I am now faced with filing a complaint with the SC Board, an possibly suing for our the retainers, the problem is he is a ghost, moved out of his rented home in Charleston, fled to some other area, cannot locate him.

I really wanted him to be my lawyer. I had a consultation and he made it clear that he doesn't take cases on contingencies but required a $5,000 retainer up front. I was willing and able to accept his terms and I had other cases that I was hoping he'd eventually help me with, although I did not share this fact with him at the time. After the first consult he told me to send him my paperwork via Dropbox so he could take a closer look at my case and call me back, I did what he asked but he never contacted me. In the meantime I filed my own claim with the EEOC due to impending statute of limitation on my claim. I was told by subsequent lawyers that I should've had a lawyer draft/file it for legal reasons that ultimately caused me to drop my case. Months later, after I received the Right to Sue letter from the EEOC, I attempted to contact him again. It took him nearly two weeks to respond and that was the last I ever heard from him. I wasted so much time being patient and waiting on him that I had to scramble to find another lawyer. Other lawyers and firms gave me the courtesy of declining my case rather than stringing me along and then ghosting me. I'm disappointed because he was the first lawyer to contact me on Avvo--within minutes--and I really liked him when I met him and his awesome pup.

We consulted with Mr. Harley regarding educational services for our grandson and ended up hiring him to work with our school district. Mr. Harley provided us with excellent guidance and information for working with the school. We only used him for a short time but his services were instrumental to us. He did provide us with refund of the deposit balance.

I can't say enough good things about this attorney! So knowledgeable and professional and never once made me feel anything but a valued client. I had been pushed off by the school system for almost 10 years, even though I knew my child had issues, he was able to push through in a matter of weeks to get her the help she needed! And he is a nice person who cares, I sure can't say that for some attorneys that I have had to deal with!

David did an incredible job representing a client I referred to him in the Education law area. He had an incredible eye for detail...details that anyone practicing in other areas who did not know Education law would ever had any idea. His many years in Education law saved the day and my client's case. More importantly, David brought a strategic view to the case that most lawyers lack and was able to implement some very creative tactics against the other side to execute that strategy fully. He had the other side trembling in their boots as they had no idea that anyone outside of education had a clue how Boards of Education operate.

I have had significant experience with attorneys. David Harley by far is one of the finest attorneys I have ever worked with. A person of integrity, extremely knowledgeable, and an individual who can be trusted to act in your best interests