Frederick W Newall Law Office

No nonsense kinda fella, real sharp. 👍

Fred is very friendly, but that is where the positives end. I was referred to Mr. Newall by ARAG for a legal name change. We pay for legal services benefits so I thought, why not finally change my name after all these years using a nick name.

Oh boy, was that a joke. What should have been a 15 minute conversation about what I needed turned into a full hour consult, but the majority of that conversation was about his cats. Including grainy pictures from a 20 year old flip phone. He really likes to chat about his family and life. I tried to chalk it up to him being a nice old man, but it kept getting worse.

His office is a complete disaster; stacks upon stacks of files piled everywhere. And these weren't current cases he was working on; many of these had dates from the 1990's.

He asked me the same questions multiple times. Simple things like my name; which he had written down. Even after several times of my telling him that I wanted to change my first name from Olivia to Leea, including the forms right in front of him, he still managed to get it backward.

After I was finally able to get away and get out the door, I heard nothing for weeks. I finally called to check in and his secretary advised me I needed to complete paperwork I'd already done with Fred and pay a deposit.

A deposit shouldn't have been needed since ARAG was covering it fully. His secretary explained it was for incidentals. We're talking a simple name change and I had to pay for court fees, background checks, etc. myself so what incidentals could there be?

After more than two months with no movement from Fred, I finally just looked up the process and did the legal name change myself. It wasn't that hard and even with all the items I had to pay for myself even with an attorney(court filing, background check, fingerprints, etc), I got it done in two months for less than he wanted for a deposit!

This guy was obviously good at one time, but he is well past his prime and is no longer a good lawyer. Save your money and do it yourself or hire a real attorney.

Fred is my attorney of choice. He is a very good attorney and has represented me well. I appreciate all he has done to save me money with his excellent negotiation strategies. If you need help and have it done in an expedited way, go with Fred. He is very fair!