Laura Furniss, (bad!) family law attorney (Furniss Family Law Group)

As only Laura can. She has done so in a way that boggles the mind with the cleverness with which she inflicts damage upon herself. She has chosen a domain name and "karma" slogan for her web site, in honor of this very page. I am pleased.

I kid you not, she has named her site badkarmatics.com, which seems like a delightfully appropriate choice. Cool!

So far, though, I don't think she has tried to get me to take my own page about her down, which is probably a rare good decision.

Ok this is a bit out of order, but I added it after I was inspired by the "badkarmatics.com" domain thing to add more to the page. I mean, this is starting to get interesting, right? But maybe I need to add dates as I add updates.

Below is just some bonkers (and frankly kinda pathetic...?) email correspondence, after she lost in trial. (click images to open in new tab if it makes it more readable)

Here she finally (a month later, following much prompting) explained her plagiarism accusation.

There's plenty more where this came from. Seriously...tons. There's also this bit of nonsense from Laura, which, following a strong decision, I felt I was free to give a strong response to. Most things I don't want to put on a completely public web site because I don't want personal things concerning my ex out there for all to see -- she was taken advantage of by Laura and all this is more Laura's fault than my ex's. Just email me (rjbrown at gmail). Many have. Glad to talk on the phone as well. I'm not guaranteeing you'll love me (although I think I'm generally a pretty nice person, just not with Laura anymore...), but I can pretty much guarantee you won't come away wanting to hire Ms. Furniss.

Another update, 3/31/2018: Laura is suddenly getting some positive reviews on Yelp. None are actually claiming to have had a customer experience (which is a requirement for posting on Yelp), and they are mostly people who just signed up in the past few days to post a single review. Looks to me like Laura is telling everyone she knows to post reviews to counter this page (or, you know, just posting them herself). And Kayla N. is right there to mark them as "useful" as quick as they come in. Regardless, unlike me, they don't give you contact info or a full name or a picture or anything else...so, you decide if they are genuine. (you can try contacting them on Yelp, but how much you wanna bet they won't reply?) Look at that last one especially...does that look like a real review or is it just Laura posting her own glowing review of herself?

So, we've come back to the story at the top of the document, but in some more detail this time. Seeing all these "likes" by Kayla I do a tiny bit of digging around. Ok, all I did was click on her profile, it's not like some kind of sleuthy detective work. I notice pretty quickly that Kayla posted another review a week or so prior, where she is obviously talking about me. In fact, she is obviously either Laura or Anna, since she is talking about speaking to another law firm about me, on behalf of a law firm. (she claims she is a "friend", but come on, seriously? Lawyers don't send "friends" to do law work for them) Anyway, I assume she is posting this with the hope that I see it? Maybe so I'll take it as a threat? I don't know. It is just weird.

So I decide, rather than immediately calling her out on it, I'll pretend for a bit that I haven't seen it. Let's just see what happens. So I send her a private message simply about the fact that she has tagged a bunch of positive reviews of Laura as "useful" (pretty much as soon as they are posted), so I'm just asking about it. I thought I was pretty polite about it.


In addition, I flag the Katie G and Gina B reviews, and get them removed by Yelp (since they explicitly say they aren't actual customers). After doing so, I forward the response from Yelp to Anna and Laura, again fairly politely. Of course, they don't respond to me by email, but I've got my fingers crossed they'll do something public and weird. It's like they can't help themselves....moths to a flame. And they exceeded my expectations. With panache, you might say.

Kayla posts another review:

OMG. So, with her knowing that I was watching her Yelp activity, knowing I have this web page up that ranks very highly on Google for anyone who does a search about them, she posts a review of HER OWN FIRM. Pretending to be a client. Attacking me by name. This is mindblowing.

How could she not know this is 1) suuupppeeerr unethical and 2) going to be suuupppeeerr embarrassing, and 3) going to live on, on my web site, until at least the Earth crashes into the Sun....?


Do they somehow not know this boneheaded move will follow them around for the rest of their careers?!!


Sorry but there is just no excuse for this kind of mixture of shady and dumb. I know, I know, I was kind of expecting it...but somehow my jaw still dropped.

And just to wrap this up: of course, Kayla is obviously Anna or Laura, since she mentioned speaking to an attorney on behalf of the law firm. I knew it was Anna (they have significant differences in their writing styles), but I really wanted something more solid so I at least knew for sure which of the two, so I can say it here without risk. So I called Leah at Kronenberger and Rosenfeld, who Kayla kindly mentioned in her review. I said that Anna had told me she is being represented by them, concerning me. (which she did, on Yelp) And of course Leah confirmed it was Anna.

Kayla, my "creepy and weird" communication to you is posted above. I personally don't see how it can be called creepy and weird, it seemed pretty benign but ok. (I had to go back and check if I had asked something like "what are you wearing?", which admittedly would have been pretty creepy, but nope, didn't...) If you were Laura, you'd call it "harassing," since that is how she always refers to communications when she doesn't actually want to address what it says. Anyway, since Laura had gotten all these positive reviews in the past few days, none of which appeared to be from from actual clients, and then you were "Usefulling" them immediately, I figured I'd invite you to do a review yourself, if you are actually a client. (of course, you're not, but still... Wait why do I even have to justify this? it was obviously the Furniss sisters astroturfing their business... There is absolutely nothing wrong with people on Yelp calling people out for activity which appears deceptive!)

So you say I've posted four or five reviews of Laura and had them taken down. Hmmm. First of all, how would you know if you are just a happy client? Do you not understand how anyone with common sense would see that a regular happy client of Laura would probably not be following her Yelp page so closely for long periods of time? Anyway you are busted on that, so I guess I don't need to go on about it.

Secondly, nope, only once before has my review of Laura been taken down, a long time ago. I'm well aware of the rule that says only clients should post reviews, so that's why I made a web page. But since there was a glut of reviews that were also breaking that same rule, I figured I'd counter them for as long as it lasted. But I did it without being the least bit dishonest, in fact I say right in my review that it should probably be taken down because I'm not a client either. You, on the other hand, are lying. Anyway, your review only invites people to figure out who this Rob Brown guy is, if they have somehow missed my web page. (but honestly, who is going to miss it?) Despite your insistence that I am psycho and creepy, guess what other people think? No one who is actually researching family law attorneys has one iota of a problem with what I am doing. The only people who do are those who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

You question whether I have better things to do with my life.... and yet, Laura claims she basically represented my ex pro-bono, so you could ask her the same thing....didn't she have better things to do with her life than try to tear down my character and force me out of my daughter's life? She spent a heck of a lot of time trying to do that.

Maybe Laura thought it was "the right thing to do." That I really was a terrible person and needed to be put in my place. Well, that's fine if she really thinks that, but she sure didn't want to actually talk about it or defend that position over the course of more than a year. Her "no negotiation" style was in full effect. If I asked what she actually thinks happened on one particular night that came up time and again in the proceedings, all she'd say is "I have a different perspective." Obviously, Laura didn't really care what actually happened, since my story made sense and the story she and her client eventually told in court, didn't. But, had she addressed it privately first, she could have seen how incredibly weak her case was. All she really had going into court was a custody evaluator that was....uhhh, "friendly" to her side. But luckily he was an idiot, and the judge spent pages and pages of the decision calling out just how badly he did his job. (Laura always claimed she held him in high esteem, and she sent lots of business his way. And now the Board of Psychology has weighed in, and he's closed shop under pressure. In the end, that pressure came from lots of directions, and I am proud that one of them was me.)

The difference with between me and you is, everything I put out there, is backed by evidence. Solid, crystal clear evidence. And unlike you, "Kayla," I am happy to say who I actually am, just in case anyone questions my motives or the truthfulness of anything I say. I have been an open book, from the day my case began until today. You, meanwhile, pretend to be someone you are not, telling lies to the public and doing a horrible job of hiding it. So you've been caught. Unlike the stuff Laura did, I can be as public as I want about your screwups without the slightest concern about embarrassing the mother of my child, which inhibits me a bit regarding Laura.

So going back to some more of your comments. You mentioned that I'm spinning my wheels because I got a Yelp review taken down? Well, your wheels seem to be getting traction on Yelp, but I'm not sure you are headed in the direction you think you are. Anyway, I even mentioned, right in the review, that they should probably take it down. I just wanted them to take the other "non customer" reviews down, and they did. (except for yours...I'm not touching that one!) So....Google any variation of "Laura Furniss" or "Furniss Family Law" and see where my own web page comes up. Pretty damn high, thanks to having a long internet presence and therefore Google seeing me as credible. This page certainly ranks higher for a search for your firm, than your own firm's website. And Yelp sure isn't taking this page down. My words are getting out there, and people believe me, partly because I put my name on it (and share more information with people who email). You can call it trolling, but I am in contact with a whole bunch of people, former clients of Laura, people she's opposing, etc, and I know she is still out there doing harm, with her unethical approach to family law. Today is typical, I got two emails from new people who have seen the page. I'm well aware that I am having a pretty big impact on her ability to do more harm. I don't think that is trolling, nor a waste of time. (ok the image of the car was trolling...) I just wish someone had done it before I started my journey down the family law rabbit hole. Regardless, calling it wheel spinning is just wishful thinking. I am confident this page is limiting the harm your firm can do....and I'm good with that.

Since this seems to be getting traction, and I keep talking to people who are still dealing with the corruption in the family law system (and many of them find my story gives them hope), I even purchased the domain corruptfamilylaw.com. (go ahead, do a whois on it) I'm thinking about starting a community, rather than doing it all on the karmatics site...

So....you say that, since I am opposing party and Laura is a "strong advocate," of course I don't like her.... um, are you aware she lost badly against self-represented me? Like, couldn't-be-a-stronger-decision badly. Of course you are aware, because you are Anna, Kayla, and I sent you everything. While I don't post the decision itself publicly due to concerns about my ex's privacy, I will happily show it to people who want to see it. You already know how "strong" an advocate she was against me. But anyone else? I can probably even put you in touch with my ex who was a client -- she is no fan of Laura Furniss at this point, I assure you. All Laura did for her is lead her to a humiliating defeat in court that could have been easily avoided by being a decent person and meeting and negotiating, rather than try using dirty tricks and general nastiness.

Regarding "randomly appearing in court", I showed up to court as support for a self-representing party who, yeah, I met because I've been vocal about my issues with Laura and Steve Newton. I know lots of people through this page and my Steve Newton page (and more every day). I was invited by a participant in the proceedings. And courtrooms are public, for good reason. This isn't "suuuupppeerr creepy", but if it rattled Laura, I'm not going to lose any sleep over that. I have to admit it was pretty funny how she took my photo in the courtroom cafe.