Before going into the details of the issues encountered with this firm, I need to be clear that I first worked with the local BBB for months to try and help resolve this. When that did not work, a professional letter outlining the issues and request to refund my half of the work was sent. That letter was sent twice. When no response was received from the letters, 1 call was placed to them to see if they would refund the money due. A cease & desist letter (not an official order) was received from them. Each time they tried to hit back hard to try and deter any further action. Others had good experiences with this company. Unfortunately, I did not.

• They were paid thousands of dollars for 9 hours of work (1 hour to review documents, 8 hours of mediation)
• 8 hours could be all day or 2-half days according to their staff. 2-half days due to my work was selected by me.
• Normally, the mediator works with each parties’ legal counsel to get info back and forth. They were informed that due to the simplicity of this, one was not needed, and I would be providing the information. They indicated they preferred to work with legal counsel but are were able to make this work
• 3 calls were placed the week prior to mediation to find out how to get them the documents. They never responded with how to send this to them. Thus, I had to walk into the mediation with documents in-hand.
• With no way to provide them the documents, they had no way to utilize the 1-hour to review
• Upon arrival, I was informed that it was an all-day session (8 hours). Two of my client meetings had to be canceled to accommodate resulting in lost revenue (my profession is consultant)
• Since they had not received & not reviewed my financial information, it was never reviewed or taken into account. Thus, as a mediator, there was no way for our mediator to make objective recommendations.
• Time was taken away from the mediation to research asset value with the other party. Would not have been necessary had they reviewed prior to the mediation. Our mediator never looked at my findings nor the documented research sources for value. It took over 35 minutes of our mediator & the other part to do research while I sat there idle.
• At the end of 8-hours, was informed the time was up. We had at least 2 changes that did not make it into the agreement, but our mediator informed us they would be adjusted by her staff and sent back to us. Upon receiving the draft of the final agreement, those agreed to changes were not included. Our mediator's paralegal was standing at the doorway to the conference room to help conclude and 4 of us agreed to complete the agreed to changes.
• 3 calls were placed, post mediation, to speak to our mediator to discuss. I was only able to speak to her staff and upon the 3rd call, I was informed it would cost more money to have it included.
• To get to a final agreement it took 6 more weeks of legal work and fees to complete it. It cost both parties thousands of dollars more to reach a final settlement
• When contacting the BBB, they ask what a reasonable settlement would be. A refund of my half of the fees would be acceptable. This still left them with considerable money for the work done.