Coates Frey Tanimoto & Gibson, AAL LLLC is Hawaii's largest and arguably one of the best known divorce and family law firms. Our Honolulu divorce lawyers have dedicatedly handled over 30,000 cases across the Hawaiian Islands in all subcategories of family law, including adoption, child custody and child support, divorce, prenuptial agreements, restraining orders, and more.
Our team's size and years of experience set us apart from other family law practices on Oahu and throughout our Island State and allows us to approach your case with a depth of knowledge and level of care that is unmatched. Our practice is infused with our passion for community and the aloha spirit.
Our team's size and years of experience set us apart from other family law practices on Oahu and throughout our Island State and allows us to approach your case with a depth of knowledge and level of care that is unmatched. Our practice is infused with our passion for community and the aloha spirit.
Services
Our Honolulu firm reflects the diversity and friendliness of Hawaii. Our lawyers care about you and grow familiar with your unique concerns. Our goal is to provide the experience, skill, and sensitivity needed to consistently achieve superior results at reasonable costs. We have worked with more than 20,000 satisfied clients on Honolulu, Oahu, and the neighboring islands over the past 30 years.
Everyone on our team, from our lawyers to our clerical and paralegal staff, functions in an akamai or "hands-on" fashion. Many of our secretaries have formal paralegal training. Others have five or more years of substantive, on-the-job experience with our firm. We pride ourselves on the permanence and longevity of our staff.
Our team of attorneys has been helping families on Oahu and neighboring islands for over 30 years. We continue to provide counsel and service in English, Japanese, and Korean to our clients on every Hawaiian Island and in every family court. Our attorneys are among the strongest and longest-standing family law practitioners in Hawaii.
Bradley A. Coates was our firm's founder and the author of Hawaii's award winning family law treatise "Divorce With Decency." He formally retired from active practice of law after 40+ years as a family law attorney. His former practice emphasized domestic and family law cases including complex divorce actions, settlement, and mediation of family law matters.
P. Gregory Frey is our senior attorney and one of the partners of our firm. Beyond the many roles he fills and contributions he makes to keep Coates Frey Tanimoto & Gibson, AAL LLLC running as best and smoothly as possible, Greg continues to contribute to families throughout Hawaii through philanthropic endeavors and activities.
Reviews (19)
Danrie M.
Jun 01, 2021
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Robert Young has been a blessing to my family. We have had this lingering dark cloud over our heads for a long time and it has been especially hard for my father. After meeting with another attorney, and being sorely disappointed with the experience (he had said there was nothing he could do and to just pay out the plaintiff), we were determined to find a plausible route. Our grandfather was the one who found Robert Young and we were so happy with the experience! He was reassuring and pleasant, very obviously invested in helping us with our case and provided brilliant insight and sound advice concerning
Sarah M.
Feb 28, 2021
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First L.
Dec 03, 2019
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Brad coats is not an honest person. He lied about his fees upfront, then let his staff Bill me hours. I gave him everything he needed to help me file for divorce and he totally ignored everything and did it his own way and charged me three times as much. Then to add insult to injury he charged me money to close his own personal files on the "case".
So I wasted like $1500 got nothing in return and ended up filing the paperwork all by myself for free.
The only thing Brad is good at is billing. Very unscrupulous person I would never do business with them and I would never recommend them
So I wasted like $1500 got nothing in return and ended up filing the paperwork all by myself for free.
The only thing Brad is good at is billing. Very unscrupulous person I would never do business with them and I would never recommend them
Le N.
Aug 08, 2019
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Dave F.
May 14, 2019
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Reiko N.
Apr 29, 2019
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This is long overdue review for an incredible service I received from Bob Young. My case was a domestic abuse that was tricky with class-A manipulative ex (have you seen the movie, 'Enough' 2002 with J.Lo? Not to that extreme ending, but the very same tactic of the abusive partner), and dealing with clinical psychologists and CPS. Mr. Young was very strategic with his execution through my worries and doubts. Almost a year later after the divorce settlement, I received a request from court for something I had no idea about. Mr. Young no longer represented me at that time, but he still
Shauny B.
Mar 22, 2019
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If 0 stars were a thing, this firm would be one of them. Coates & Frey are such sad, money hungry, and soul-less people. Paul pretends to have your back, be your friend, understand EXACTLY what you seem to be going through during the consult.... However, the second you sign the agreement and hand over the initial payment he suddenly works for the opposing counsel. Paul would show up to showings late, never did answer his phone, never returned calls, and would drag cases out because of the hefty amount he charges to just show up to a court house. Case was ended worst than how it was in the beginning
C. G.
Feb 20, 2019
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We would have been better off representing ourselves. I should have read followed the advice of the other reviewers. I was short of putting the case together myself. It felt like our attorney, Mr. Young was listening to us, but he really wasn't. He had thing drafted and charged us for the time didn't follow through. Why spend all this time typing up a subpoena if you're not going to issue it? He didn't know our case, we did come to him last minute but that should have been a reason for him to up his game since he decided to take our case. Instead we paid over 8,000 in
Stephanie K.
Apr 05, 2018
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Greedy and money hungry. Poured a very large amount of money into what should have been a relatively easy case. I ended up doing most of the work myself as my attorney was not very knowledgeable about the military divorce process and I wasted my time and money going with this firm when all they really did for me was file paperwork. My attorney charged me for absolutely every email and a bunch of other nonsense charges on their "statement" half of which were made up in order to use up my retainer so that I would have to pay them MORE money. They don't care about their clients; they
Hr D.
Mar 28, 2018
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I previously reviewed this firm with explanations as to why. Now years later, I'm even more pissed off as I found a note from our new attorney addressed to the Coates and Frey attorney that BLEW OUR CASE! And it appears the cause was pure indifference and laziness. These guys are the joke of a 1,000 lawyers chained to the bottom of the sea. I hope I get stuck in an elevator with our C&F attorney one day. These guys ****ed up the lives of a mother and child FOREVER!
K. M.
Jan 04, 2018
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Kawika K.
Nov 23, 2017
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DONT GO WITH THIS FIRM, IT WAS a big waste of money and time!!!!!!!!!!noah Gibson is terrible three years with him and we got nothing but broke promise. Please please do not go with Noah or this firm. Noah is all mouth , please trust me. Nothing but a big fat bill at the end and we lost. Someone keeps taking down my post but I will keep posting it to make sure others don't get scam like I did!!!!
Amanda S.
Nov 17, 2017
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Monica A.
Sep 08, 2017
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Lydia B.
Aug 18, 2017
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Brianna M.
Nov 30, 2016
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Worst law firm. I gave them over $25,000 and I lost my divorce. I lost everything including my possessions and custody of my child and even ended up owing my cheating ex child support. As the mother and the innocent party (he cheated multiple times and got violent with me and I proved it) this surprised me. My family was falsely slandered on the stand and my lawyer did nothing and the firm is coming after me for an additional $6,000 they say I still owe them. Honestly if I were in Hawaii I would take this to civil court and get those charges dismissed because of the horrible results of my divorce
Yon S.
Sep 22, 2015
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Very poor results for a TON, a TON of your hard earned money.
Even my ex, after all was completed, admitted that using Ann Isobe, was a disaster. She seems to have early dementia, or some kind of cognitive disability. We had to repeat, and reconfirm SO many things throughout our case.
Now I know why the opposing counsel wanted to file contempt, so many times throughout our proceedings. She seems to just make things up, when she doesn't know, or understand the law, that she is supposed to know. Malpractice big time.
How did I not come to Yelp and read about her before using them. OMG.
Even my ex, after all was completed, admitted that using Ann Isobe, was a disaster. She seems to have early dementia, or some kind of cognitive disability. We had to repeat, and reconfirm SO many things throughout our case.
Now I know why the opposing counsel wanted to file contempt, so many times throughout our proceedings. She seems to just make things up, when she doesn't know, or understand the law, that she is supposed to know. Malpractice big time.
How did I not come to Yelp and read about her before using them. OMG.
Bri D.
May 27, 2014
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I hired Dean Soma for a child custody case and in one month billed us over $3900.00. This didn't even include the court filing or the child support filing, we did all that prior. He billed us for emails he received multiple times because it came back to me undelivered so I resent it and called to make sure he got it, his secretary replied; not yet so I resent it and can you believe he billed me 4-5x's for that emails bc he got it and didn't tell me. When I questioned him about all the double billing for emails and asked him if he got it more than once why didn't he email
Ray E.
Sep 06, 2013
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The other day I needed some quick advice on obtaining an Emergency Guardianship. I e-mailed the Firms main e-mail address ( this was quite early in the morning ). About 8:15 a.m. I received a call from Bradley Coates. He was very informative and helpful. He indicated when I was ready he'd be able to assist me through the process.
I was impressed that I received such a quick empathetic response from the main Partner.
I simply wanted others know of my experience with this Law Firm...
Ray
I was impressed that I received such a quick empathetic response from the main Partner.
I simply wanted others know of my experience with this Law Firm...
Ray
