Massachusetts Attorney Comments

Massachusetts Divorce Attorney Ratings Based on Comments From Divorcing Fathers

This page collects comments on specific lawyers and other professionals in the divorce system. Unfortunately money drives this system more than the welfare of the families and children involved. This has attracted many people without high ethics, especially lawyers. In fact the divorce BUSINESS is about $2 BILLION in Massachusetts alone! $1.2 Billion of that is going to the lawyers (25,000 divorces per year at an average cost of $50,000 at $25k for each side).

There must be some good lawyers out there who care about their clients and their client's children but we have had a tough time finding any. We will continue to seek ones who help, instead of harm families in the divorce process. The adversarial legal system is the wrong model and forum for divorce. This was designed to protect people accused of crimes from improper incarceration - yet those protections are mostly thrown away in family court. Mediation is a far better approach and all families should try this first. When lawyers get involved they literally stir up trouble to generate bills. Some lawyers even admit this and it is believed that about 50% of lawyers will cause more conflict intentionally to get more money from the estate of the divorcing couple. In fact Massachusetts lawyers have what is called the "40% rule" - which is don't let the couple resolve their divorce until lawyers have extracted 40% of their estate first! This is FRAUD plain and simple and damages families and children for LIFE!

These attorneys can be sued for malpractice, malicious prosecution and violation of constitutional rights. This may be the only way to get these unethical people out of the business of ruining our family bonds for profit.

These comments are personal opinions and so not verified and are published under the First Amendment right to free speech anonymously. Please send you evaluations of attorneys and other divorce professionals good, bad and indifferent to webmaster@fathersUnite.org for posting.

Bill Mayer of Framingham - RATING DO NOT USE UNDER ANY CONDITION - UNETHICAL AND ANTI-MALE - DAMAGES FAMILIES INTENTIONALLY TO "WIN" his case and drive up legal fees. No ethics whatsoever.

He is my wife’s counsel and is anti-male in a big way. I have seen him give up his own male clients by volunteering all kinds of stuff beyond what was fair and reasonable. In particular an executive earning good money was paying child support plus all the home costs after he moved out and was living with family. Attorney Mayer volunteered 50% of his "client's" income over the $100K limit covered by the CS guidelines. This means 75% after taxes going to the wife when he was already paying ALL her expenses and heavy child support. Another attorney I talked to say “he has the capacity to be evil” – I agree completely and have seen him work to intentional hurt my children. He believes anything and everything he can do to DESTROY the opponent is warranted. He seems to have a personality disorder and hates men so he will advocate unreasonably for women and destroy the family and children bonds for more billable hours. I suspect he must have had a bad father or something serious in his childhood left him anti-male.

Comment from another father - Bill Mayer in Framingham. Did not return phone calls. Undermined my child custody behind my back to the Judge. Called me classic passive aggressive without any questioning from Judge or opposing counsel. Who needs to pay someone to bad mouth you to a Judge. Found this out when requested tapes of trial and listened to tapes. Blew me away. That is when I changed from using him after listening to trial tapes.

Comments from father # 3 - Bill Mayer in Framingham. Bill Mayer was appointed as the first GAL in my case back in 2004. He was ordered to investigate the allegations of abuse being made by my ex in response to my taking her to court when she wouldn't tell me where my oldest daughter was. (It turned out she'd been admitted to a psych hospital for cutting). Mayer sent a letter to the court requesting my visitation rights be suspended after he met with my ex and the kids; that resulted in a supervised visitation order. I then met with him myself and, after we spoke at length, said that he'd seen these kinds of cases before, it was clear that there really wasn't any abuse and that I was just trying to be a father, etc. He'd asked me to bring in a list of "witnesses" that he could talk with about me; I had 6 pages of people willing to do so, some of whom both Bill and I knew from our professional lives. He said that he was very impressed with the list and that he'd be contacting some of them.

I then obtained copies of the 51As that showed that DSS investigated my ex's accusations and found them unwarranted and, with Bill's OK, sent them to him. A week before his report was due to the court, my ex put my son in a psychiatric hospital (in 2005 she put my youngest kid in one too). Mayer suddenly resigned from the case at that point, saying that he "wasn't qualified" to do the case, especially since there is a kid in a psych hospital, and that he'd recommend the judge to appoint a mental health specialist instead. This was despite the fact that he was willing to take the case knowing that my ex had put my oldest child in a psych hospital shortly before he started.

As a result we ended up with another GAL a couple of months later, who then resigned before starting because I told him that the amount of retainer he wanted was excessive. A couple of months after that we started in the Cambridge court clinic, which ultimately (a year after Mayer quit) found that the abuse allegations were false and that there was no need for supervised visitation. The CC also stated that the problems in the family were being caused by the mother.

Now, a year after that, I have finally obtained custody of my middle kid, my son; my eldest daughter is whereabouts unknown, and I am working through a transition plan to bring my youngest daughter home from foster care. My ex wife left the children behind and moved to Oregon.

If Mayer had followed through and completed the case, perhaps we wouldn't have had to go through so much. Of course, that assumes that his report would say what he said to me, that he didn't see any need for keeping the kids from me now that I'd clarified much of what had been said.

Oh, and he billed me for reading the DSS reports --- AFTER he resigned from the case (the bill states that he read the reports 2 days after his letter of resignation was sent to the court). I'd be hesitant to hire this guy, gaudy office and all.

Comments from father # 4 - Bill Mayer in Framingham. - Does "Special Appearances" for judges in Cambridge (and likely other courts)
These are a scam to avoid due process and steamroll people into jail. Basically they can not sentence someone for contempt to jail unless they are represented by counsel. So they find any unscrupulous lawyer in the hallway, stand him up in front of the judge (without having really reviewed the facts and case much, if at all), and then the lawyer says little of nothing and the judge sentences him to jail for contempt or child support nonpayment without any real hearing, trial or opportunity to rebut the accusations etc. This, of course, is subverting the intent of representation at a "trial" and is clearly just a kangaroo court. Any lawyer that participates in these has no ethics and is pandering to judges and sending people to jail unfairly and unlawfully by subverting the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court laws.

Jim Lukowiak - Framingham. Rating: SMART AND CREATIVE BUT WITH SOME MIXED REVIEWS - He is bad at returning phone calls. Has advocated for me in court, but to no avail yet. Missed my court appearances due to health issue. Withholding judgment at this point. Saw negative comment on previous post that concerns me.

Second account from another father - Jim abandon his client when he was sentenced for contempt and left his to rot in jail. Made the comment "Maybe it will do him some good" on the phone to me after I called to see what had happened at the hearing when he did not return.

Third Father rating on Jim Lukowiak - Jim was and is my last lawyer, I continue to highly recommend him with the caveat that he can be hard to get a hold of and to return calls in a timely manner. One needs to be assertive in getting a hold of him like one needs to be assertive most of the time when it comes to family court. He is very creative, strategic and thinking out of the box. He denies saying to leave that guy in jail. His manner in court is not abrasive or aggressive, meaning he does not rub the "God's" the wrong way, but outside of court he is one hell of a fighter. Being abrasive against judges will not win any fathers lawyer any plus points and payback is a bitch. I think he accomplishes more this way.

Forth Father's account - Yes, he is a total low life. He essentially robbed me and dared me to take him to court, which I did. What a waste of time.

Lisa Greenberg was my parent coordinator for a while in Danvers. I thought she was even handed.

Amy Blake. Boston. She works very hard for her client. Not afraid to tell blatant lies and make false accusations. She is very good at what she does. She advocates advocates and advocates for her client. Wish she were my attorney.

Gayle Stone Turesky Boston. Dropped her since I felt like nothing was getting done. Felt liked I was getting milked. Told her to propose settlements. She kept telling me it was to early.

Larry Bull of Worcester (508) 754-6536 (will only work in Worcester system) - Tries to keep costs down and not inflame the divorce as many other lawyers do.