Martin S. McHugh - Chico, CA

Mr. McHugh is a lawyer. Just not a very helpful one. Please consider the following questions before allowing Mr. McHugh to take your money and represent you. Would you like a lawyer that: * Advocates for you? * Communicates with you? * Possesses a sense of urgency? * Instills a sense of reassurance or partnership with you? * Takes notes regarding your case and then actually refers to them in the future? * Makes eye contact with you? * Remembers your name? If you answer “Yes” to any of the above questions, then Mr. McHugh is not the lawyer for you. Instead, if you would like a lawyer that: * Starts off your first consultation by saying: “I don’t mean to insult your intelligence…” and then does exactly that. * Makes you feel like a simpleton because YOU don’t understand the law or the intricacies of the court. * Requires continual hand-holding, follow-up, and prompting from you for any action to be taken on your behalf. * Does not respond in a timely manner to your calls, voicemails, or emails. * Simply forwards emails to you from the court or the opposing counsel with no explanatory comment or additional context. * Forces the opposing counsel to write a hardcopy letter to your lawyer that starts with: “I have been trying to reach you. Please give me a call.” Just to get a response and discuss terms. * When confronted, admits that his communications with you have not been “up to par” and yet is no more proactive or transparent in future interactions. If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then congratulations! Mr. McHugh is your kind of lawyer. If you retain Mr. McHugh, expect to pay full price for less than full service. You will be left in the dark and then get billed for doing your own case management and communication. Mr. McHugh failed to put forth even the minimum expected effort for a retained attorney. At no time in handling my case did he proactively reach out to me with information, options, or communications to bring my case to a timely resolution. In every interaction it was up to me to initiate communication or prompt him to take action in contacting opposing counsel or continually remind him to ensure key elements I desired were included in the iterative drafts of court documents. The gut-wrenching process of a divorce or custody dispute is draining and comes at a high emotional cost. Paying for an attorney that is distant, disengaged, and unresponsive only compounds the cost. Had Mr. McHugh expended half the effort on my behalf that I spent on writing this online review, I would have avoided a great deal of unnecessary anxiety, stress, and fees. Save yourself the trouble, frustration, and headache of my experience. Keep searching and find a helpful and committed lawyer to represent you.