I was compelled to write this report to complain about this law firm and especially this particular attorney. I found another report on this site about this person and it made me even more angry that he did the same thing to someone else and displayed the same behavior. I think the public should know what kind of person this attorney is and I am now certain that there must be others out there who have had similar issues with this firm and/or this individual who may not have come forward for one reason or another... Probably out of fear of retaliation from/by them/him. Like the other person who made a report on this site, it could not have been any worse for me to represent myself than to use this attorney as my representation. I did not have the money to pay an attorney, so this firm and this attorney were assigned to me as my public defenders. Just like with the other complainant here on this site, Ken Harmell did not take any time to discuss my case with me and even went as far as trying to publically embarrass me on more than one occasion, by shouting my business across the room when everyone was assembled for a hearing in the correctional facility. He also pushed for a plea bargain, rather than taking my case to trial, as I requested... And later lied to my family members that it was his idea to go to trial, but that I did not want to do that. It was several months before any of the plea agreements were ever acted on because Mr. Harmell did not follow up on anything as quickly as he could have done. He agreed to having my friend act as liaison between us, because it was difficult for me to call him when I was incarcerated. Mr. Harmell had to constantly be pushed to deal with issues on my case and when he did not want to do his job, he threatened my liaison that he would report them to the police and bring them up on cyberstalking charges. This was a huge deterent to my case and because of it, I was not able to communicate with my attorney as needed. To top it off, Mr. Harmell (or the firm) sent a law student to represent me at a critical hearing in my case, so after completing the requirements of the plea and thinking I was moving on to the next steps needed to comply with the court, I did not have proper representation. The prosecutor was able to get the judge to take me back into custody for another year and when I was finally able to get in contact with Mr. Harmell, he wanted nothing more to do with my case. As soon as he was able, Mr. Harmell resigned as my attorney by telling the judge the reason was that he was being cyberstalked. My friend had not contacted him in several months prior to his resignation. I had to hire a real attorney to get a warrant quashed and to allow me to get out on house arrest. I was back out within a month. I would definitely not ever recommend this attorney, or this firm to anyone and it's extremely upsetting to think how many others this kind of thing has happened to. I will also be reporting Mr. Harmell to the Washing State Bar Association for his behavior. I'm not sure what, if anything, will come of it, but people need to know and the public has a right to be warned so that they don't waste their valuable time and get the poor representation that this attorney had to offer. Mr. Harmell... We are not afraid of you and you need to be stopped... Sooner, rather than later!
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