Adam Michael Horn

Adam Horn’s communication skills are nonexistent. Note: Positive reviews have been generated by his friends. Mr. Horn ignores emails and phone calls. No customer service whatsoever. For some unknown reason, he decided to quit working on his files. He abandoned his clients without reso...lving their legal issues. We don’t know if he’s having personal issues or maybe he quit his job altogether?

The best characterization of my experience with Adam Horn can be summed up as follows: even months after the end of my case, I am still “incensed” and “bitterly” frustrated at how Adam (and his firm) treated me. They showed virtually no interest in how I wanted to see the case handled, and repeatedl...y ignored my requests. Rarely, if ever, did I get a response like: sure, we can do that; you’re our paying client. It was a truly unique experience to have a business that I was paying for a service show no evident interest in having a satisfied client. I was completely dissatisfied - and Adam knew it. I hired Adam and his firm to represent me in pursuing legal action in a relatively simple, very straight-forward family trust dispute with my older sister, the trustee of our mother’s trust. She provided a required trust accounting, but then acknowledged, in writing, that it contained fraudulent entries, understating assets and overstating expenses. She refused to provide a corrected accounting, or to accept compromise offers, so I had no choice but to seek legal action. I asked Adam to initiate action to “compel an accounting and remove trustee.” I had a ‘very’ strong case against the trustee, which Adam never disputed. Yet over some 14 months, Adam adamantly refused to represent my case “zealously” - or even forcefully - and took actions that I firmly believe violated the Rules of Professional Conduct and Business & Professions Code: - Displaying a lack of honesty and integrity: Adam outright lied to me at a crucial point in my case, as documented below, and falsely represented my case to the opposing side, ignoring my written instructions. He also filed a “Notice of Settlement of Entire Case” with the Butte County Court, without my knowledge or approval, claiming, falsely, that a “settlement agreement” existed, when in fact it had not even been drafted, much less agreed upon and signed. And two very contentious issues had not even been addressed yet. - Failing to keep me, the client, "reasonably informed about significant developments," including “promptly complying with reasonable requests for information and copies of significant documents when necessary to keep the client so informed.” Adam did this in the most significant circumstances. At the most crucial point - only 2 weeks before trial on Nov. 13, 2017 - Adam went behind my back and joined with the opposing attorney in signing a "Stipulation" to the Court on 30 October requesting that my trial date be vacated - the Court concurred. Adam did not consult with me in any way, and did not even tell me that he had taken this action until a week later, on 6 November, and then only after I wrote to him that day to say how eager my younger sister and I were to be coming to Chico for the trial. (We lost hundreds of dollars in travel costs for arrangements we had to change.) In his response, Adam hid the fact that he had initiated the action himself; he wrote: "Unfortunately, the trial date has been continued due to the mediation and the court's trial calendar being prior booked with a scheduled four-week trial." None of that was true: "the mediation" did not exist - Adam had made no arrangements for ‘any’ mediation. And there was 'no' court calendar conflict. The judge had written: "Due to a 5 week long trial set to go out on 11/20/17, this court will likely be unable to schedule a court trial prior to Jan. 2018." My trial was set for November 13 and expected by both sides to last at most one day. The next trial was not until a full week later. Adam refused to respond to my request for a copy of the Court Notice or my question as to who initiated the action - contrary to State Bar guidelines. There are other examples I won't include here. But, I was 'very' dissatisfied when my case was "settled" in February 2018.