I've watched my sister go through the lowest of lows for the past almost 5 years enduring a divorce and negotiating child support and custody with her highly manipulative and emotionally abusive ex-husband. When she hired the law firm, Haslam & Thorne this year and started working with Michelle as her primary attorney, and also with Brian, I finally saw a shift in her favor. The attorneys were extremely professional and aggressive in getting my sister what she and her kids deserve, in addition to arrearages from the past five years. They saw through all the gaslighting and lies from her ex-husband and cut straight to the chase, simplifying things into simple calculations based off financial documents and tax returns. They also caught his attorney using outdated calculations and forms meant to benefit their client, and updated the forms appropriately. They are in constant communication with my sister, respond quickly and are polite and supportive in their correspondence. After struggling for several years, my sister is finally hopeful that she will be able to provide for her children as they deserve. I can't express enough how wonderful it is to see her receive her just dues and become hopeful about life again. read more

Brian was referred in 2018 to get temporary guardianship of our 3 year old grandson. My husband got it. So very sadly- our daughter in law and then our son passed away within 5 months of each other. My husband went and got the permanent guardianship. Everything went great. Fast forward to 2023. We had felt that our grandson would be in a better place with our daughter because she was having kids and we wanted the very best for our grandson. Or so we thought!!! My husband had guardianship still and our grandson would come and stay with us often because it was his original home. Our daughter and husband were starting to keep our boy from seeing us as often of which- he started breaking down sobbing because he wanted to see us more and yet still live there with them. Due to crazy things- we decided we were just going to adopt him and retained Brian again. Brian put his daughter Michelle on the case. Horrible move. These last few years of just trying to see our grandson more- our daughter and her husband took us to court and played as dirty as you could ever get. They had an amazing lawyer-Vanessa Gnekow- and of course our grandson tells us that our counsel- Michelle- is great friends with the opposing counsel- Vanessa. We had already sensed it because we were losing everything. Sadly- Michelle played it off as they're just acquaintances and didn't step away. We refused to go to trial and fight our son in law and daughter's lies because we were already feeling Michelle was on their side. Never hire a lawyer who you can tell she doesn't care nor will fight. Except we didn't hire her- she was pushed on us. Things in court agreed upon- Michelle let the opposing side take it away. All the money as guardian that we gave every month to our daughter to help with everything and the money we spent on all his medical and dental and everything else- Michelle didn't fight for us when they sued us for every penny we got as guardian. The mediation took place to come to a middle ground and we now are paying money we had already paid our son in law every month. Make sense right? Thanks to Michelle raking in thousands of dollars from us and helping her opposing lawyer - good friend- we only have short phone calls. Our grandson was involved in the court case because I found him included in the opposing peoples iPad on the messages where the court was talked about. He was 9 and then turned 10. Michelle kept going after me for things they accused me of. I definitely know she didn't like me and therefore had no desire to do exactly what was right for our grandson. Our poor grandson is the victim- he lost his beloved Oma and papa and his biological family due to non existent 'fighting' for our grandson and what HE wanted. Our grandson lives in fear while on FaceTime and they are always right there. He panics. We informed Michelle that our grandson was being slapped in the face with open hands and having shoes thrown at him- the court said no they can't do that anymore. That our grandson was being around a child his age who was doing bad things to him. Michelle responded with- that's another case. Well- this case was all about a child and whose home was safe. Thanks to Michelle- our grandson doesn't see us because our son in law who by the way has only been in our life since 2012- we know nothing about him- he has the guardianship of our beautiful boy put in our care by our deceased son and daughter in law. Always read reviews because they are what's so important. Save all your money for someone who will actually fight for you. We paid Michelle to lose everything. read more

I didn't hire this legal group but Michelle represented my now ex husband in May 2024. As a single parent who lost a daughter before filing for my divorce, I had to represent myself. After my divorce, I reached out to Michelle regarding the agreement between her client and I. She responded once only. I have been trying to get a response from her for months on a matter that was supposed to have been taken care of since last year. (2nd part of our Financial agreement). This has been very stressful on an emotional and physical regard. I am still grieving and the financial hardship that has come after loosing a child that I feel like I cannot get a break. It is now February 2025, and I've yet to hear from her. Not only is she being unprofessional but she was very rude when she first approached me over the phone before going to court. She had no sympathy of my pain when telling me that her client was NOT going to agree to any type of financial help. I believe that her approach could have been more sympathetic and professional. (I am only adding 1 star on the review because it's asking me to add one or it will not let me post this). I would not give that group a star at all! read more

I had never been involved in this sort of legal matter before so I had no idea where to begin or what to expect but Michelle assisted and guided me through the whole case which led to a win. Brian even showed up for my court date, when he didn't have to. I felt very taken care of during the course of Haslam & Thorne representing me. I highly recommend Michelle and Brian! read more

Absolutely loved working with both Michelle and Brian during my extremely difficult and high conflict divorce/ child custody. Both were very professional and walked me through the process and kept me informed throughout. Michelle was amazing as she was the one having to deal with my abusive, narcissistic ex whenever he reached out to them. Brian was also amazing in court and was always able to catch my ex in his lies. Definitely recommend. read more

Donald was terrible do not use him please not very aggressive lost my case by a mile 60 thousand dollars for poor presentation could not of been any worse read more

Brian Thorne handled my divorce case very professionally. we are still in process, however I have total confidence I will come out of this very difficult case with a fair property division. Brian and his staff have walked me through every step.of the way, and successfully handled my child custody issues. This guy has the best referrals for court ordered parenting classes. Brian has been in practice along time, he is very knowledgable on what is important and how he will frame your overall case with the upmost professionalism and diplomacy. I made a great choice, I had so much support during this long difficult case. I recommend him to anyone except my ex-wife. read more

Haslam & Thorne - Divorce & Family Law Near Me - Rancho Cucamonga, California

My husband and I hired Brian Thorne for a simple change of circumstances case. I don't believe that if we tried, we could have had worse representation. Disinterested. Lazy. Incompetent. And worse, Brian shared private, confidential information given under privilege, to opposing counsel, which became the basis for their whole case. He also asked my husband to lie under oath to cover a mistake he made. I am currently pursuing a bar complaint for these incredible breaches. We paid Brian over $50,000 to lose the case. He also reneged on a promise that he made, that if he lost he would do the appeal for free. He doesn't even do appeals. He hired his friends to be expert witnesses and they made the case worse, not better. Don't trust a word he says. Don't hire him. His daughter, Michelle is equally incompetent. I had to spend hours of my time reviewing everything they sent us for mistakes, misspellings and poor grammar. Please save yourself. Do not hire anyone from this firm. read more

This is the worst lawfirm I've ever run into. There seems to be an attitude that pervades the staff here that the client is simply a source of income. Our lawyer was Brian Thorne. He wouldn't return calls, would show up late to court, and didn't really do much of anything. When he came to court he was always unprepared, and the judge looked at him like he was an idiot. In our child custody case, the other party didn't even show up with a lawyer and he won. I agree with Susan L., if you actually want someone who is going to work for the exorbitant fees your going to pay, you need to find a different law office. read more

If I could give a zero I would. I could write a novel with the history of how we have been burned so terribly by Thorne. Message me for more information; I am more than happy to provide you details so you know this is a real review. I really hope people read these reviews! We've dealt with 6 attorneys (between my current husband and me and both sides of the case). There have been 2 that are just downright awful: Roger Rombro and Brian Thorne. read more

I agree with the rest of these reviews. I too got the run around from this firm. Furthermore, after retaining Haslam I often times had to spend time/money explaining my case to other attorneys because Haslam could not make the court dates. Worse lawyer experience I have ever had. read more

Brian Thorne and his firm are the worst ever divorce and family firm. It took over a year to get divorced . Took months to get any calls or emails or updates. They did not even finish out my case. I would never go to there firm horrible horrible representation. read more

Donald Haslam costs $500 per hour, all he cares about is to take your money. I spent over $90,000 with this attorney on a family court case and nothing has been done. He kept asking for more money and didn't want our divorce case comes to final. After all the money spent he decided not to represent me anymore. His office still tells me I owe him another $10,000 and if I can't pay he will sent the case to the 3rd party collection agency. Haslam claimed he is a good Christian and does the best for all his clients. He lies! I felt heart broken after he took all of my earnings and savings away and still threatening to face his collection agency. I advise you not to work with him, you will lose all of your life savings! read more

Brian Thorne is the worst divorce attorney you could possibly get. My divorce dragged on for 2 plus years and he charged me over $23,000.00 in fees. At the time i was an unemployed mother of 3 small children. He promises you how much he can get you and in the end i actually lost more than i started with. After I thought my divorce was finalized, 2 years later I asked for a copy of my divorce papers and found out he forget for 2 YEARS to file my divorce papers-until i said something. Then he had the audacity to bill me the filing fees. His biller, Chris Neal is ding bat. She called me now, again after 2 years stating i owe another $6800.00. I paid all my fees off two years ago and Mr. Thorne was going to adjust the balance if there was any after my ex finished paying his portion of the fees. But now, he seems to have "no recollection" of this agreement. Word of advice- get it all in writing and keep all receipts. Thank God I did. Yet another word of advice- never go to this lawyer. read more

Donald Haslam is the worst attorney out there. He will empty your bank account faster than anyone you know. I was 13,000.00 dollars into my case and the only thing that had been accomplished was a stipulation order. Every time I got his bill I questioned what I was being billed for and they could not explain, they just stated it was all there and that I should understand it. I had my bills read by another law firm and they stated they could not even understand his billing. His billing clerk is the rudiest person ever and she does not even live in the state of California and if you call her to question your bill you will get charged $ 250.00 to question something that they messed up on. Mr. Haslam does not care about his clients. If you are looking for a lawyer that takes your case seriously and won't take all your money Mr. Haslam is not it. He does not care and as long as you keep feeding him your money he will take it. DO NOT USE THIS ATTORNEY... read more

Brian Thorne handled my matter very well. I prevailed in all aspects of my dissolution and I was divorced in less than 1 year and he even was able to get my ex to pay my fees. My ex was hiding money and took community funds that were used without my knowledge. I recovered and did well with support and got everything I wanted. He even had my ex take more than half the debt. I would definitely recommend him to anyone. He is very knowledgeable and gives good advice. read more

I did a considerable amount of attorney shopping for my divorce case and finally got a referral Mr. Haslam's office. He and his staff were very attentive to every one of my needs, explaining all of my documents in detail, and always answering my questions completely. I went through a very difficult high conflict custody case that did not seem it would ever end before I hired his firm. Because of his vast knowledge, hard work, and respect by not only other Attorneys but local Judges, was able to receive great Orders in my case. I would recommend Haslam & Thorne to anyone who is involved in a family law case. read more