I was quite brutal during my first conversation with John. The first words out of my mouth were, "If you tell me you can get me my legal fees, I am going to hang up the phone on you!" You would agree, not a very pleasant way to start a relationship with someone I needed to help me. I then told him, "I do not want to spend money on any attorney, I just need help with what papers to file when and how to file them. I will do all the leg work, I just need my papers." I am sure that John never had a stranger talk to him like that nor had he ever heard someone tell him, an attorney, "I do not want to pay legal fees", and yet the person obviously needed legal assistance. I have no idea why, but John decided to ride the wave and see where things would go. Once I literally dumped 12 years of horror stories on John over the phone, at no cost, John understood my frustration and agreed to help. He agreed to help me with my papers and charge me only for the time of drafting the papers I needed. Go find an attorney to do that!
John let me know that I could still collect the back child support and we discussed together how the document would look. We also discussed my son's college funding. Most attorneys would charge for each and every petition you need to file, which by the way annoys the judges. Judges hate seeing a lot of motions and petitions for one case. Judges like things simply put and organized, and John gets it. John wrote one petition which included not only making my ex to supply his tax returns and to pay the outstanding child support, but also included the college funding which is the most important part to me, as I had basically written off any hope of collecting the back child support. John also told me that I could submit all of the medical bills and school expenses that over the years I just paid myself in order to avoid problems with my ex. I did not want to come across as a vindictive ex to the judge because I wanted the judge to do the right thing for my son's college and my younger child's college degree in four years. How many attorney's let you drive your case or paperwork? NONE!
During my conversation with John, he educated me on a few things. The most important thing is the Peterson Law. If you have children going to college you have file in court every year before the school year begins otherwise your ex does not have to pay for that year of schooling. It sounds pretty crazy, but that is the world of divorce. John explained the law at great lengths and included the whole thing in the petition. There was no way that I would have known about that. John also introduced me to room 802 at the Daley Center for those of you that live in Cook County. All of the records are there. I needed copies of records which you can download and print there. I met a very kind woman there by the name of Lorrie Garner who helped me navigate the computer system and now I have become a whiz at that. By the way, you can go to any Clerk Of the Circuit Court office and download your file. My next education came with filing the petition. John let me know that petitions and motions all need to be filed electronically. In order to file electronically, you need an account. John made sure to remind me to file a Notice of Motion/Petition which basically lets your ex know that you are going to court. By the way, the beauty of filing on line is that you get a list of court dates from which to choose and you have that date and do not have to wait to get the date from the judge, which we all know will not give you the date you want, but rather the date that is good for your ex. You do need to make sure that you know your judge that has been hearing your case and the court room number which is on one of your many papers or you can get that on line by looking up your case on the Clerk of the Circuit Court in your county.
I know that my review of John has been lengthy, put trust me your time in reading this review is well worth it. I have had some very high profile attorneys and low profile attorneys. I have to tell you at the end of the day, the best bang for your buck is going to be John because you will finally be in control of your own case and pocketbook with an attorney that actually works for you instead of wasting your time and your money. read more