She was very rude and unprepared when defending my family member. We actually received a failure to appear cause we were not informed of a court date. Her exact words to us were "it's not my responsibility to notify u of ur appearance dates." If u want to spend time in jail go ahead and let her defend u. She will studder through ur appearance in court. Her assistant will tell u it's not her job to hold ur hand to make sure u understand what is happening. They sat back and let my family member hang himself cause he didnt receive any input from Karen Olsen.
DUMPTRUCK

Best Attorney in Northern California, Karen works for the success of her clients.

Karen Olson Esquire and her firm represented my daughter as legal counsel. As a parent there is not such more difficult to deal with then a child (no matter what the age) who is in trouble. Fortunately due to the outstanding professional representation by Ms. Olson my daughter was able to return home and resume her life. During the period that she was represented I contacted the staff of Ms. Olsen to obtain information on my daughters case. I live in New Jersey and my daughter lives in California. The staff at the law office were professional, kind, and responsive to my concerns and helped me significantly. I would highly recommend this firm and Ms. Olson. If you want outstanding representation from people who care about those they represent there is no other firm to call. Respectfully, Thomas Waring

I guess everyone has different experiences and conceptions of what a good attorney is and what one isn't. I want to say that I am sorry the other reviewer had such a bad experience with Karen and her assistant.
We on the other hand have nothing but praise and admiration for her. She is the only Public Defender doing felony cases in the county, she works hard with unbelievably long hours and has to juggle a family at the same time. I truly believe that if not for her being on top of my brothers case, working diligently and ferociously ( like a tenacious bull dog) his chances would be nil on a acquittal. Though his trial is not done and he is still in jail I have no doubt that her hard work will pay off for my brother. She is smart, her assistant Linda is always aware of what is going on and though we have to call her as she only calls if there is something new to add, she is always willing to give us a detailed accounting of the process, what is going on and what is new. We never feel rushed or put off by anyone in her office.

My son and our family had a horrible experience with Ms. Olsen and her staff. Her receptionist was very rude - never answering the phone and when she did or one point made the remark " I don't have time to answer tho phone to every crying mom in this town - they could not make an appointment to meet before court date- while my son was in custody it took her over 3 months to visit him encouraged him to sign a plea bargain free she convinced him she could get it lowered . The think is she never tried ! Admitting that to me and my son! When taking letters in to be filed BY the date given to me from Ms.Olsen. She said she didn't know if she had the time to file them- I offered to do it if I had to. One time I tried to talk to her after court my son had given her permission she continued wali f out of the courthouse and across the street not even giving me the decency of 5 minutes. Once in court the judge , da and her spoke for several minutes judge asking if she had received a paper she replied no was given it - the da talking , judge talking - it took the county clerk to inform them they had the wrong client !!! How well is she working for her clients if she dosnt know their case ?? At another court date my son looked confused to me as to what she had just did - postponing it once again I walked over and asked if she could explain to my son what was going on she looked at me and laughed andais she didn't even know what was going on - my recommendation is if you or you child get appointed to her ask for another- she isn't their to help the client or work for them she is very unprofessional as well as her staff. Trust me I could go on