Reviews

If your case is assigned to Ceila Harned, do everything you can to get a new CFI. This woman is biased and incompetent beyond belief. She is enamored with the men in the case. She seemingly hates the mothers and will do everything in her power to paint the mother in a bad light and put the father ina good light. My ex-husband had a long history of domestic violence on file with the courts. But she painted out as a saint. And she painted me as a liar, who coached my kids to hate their father. When we got to court, she walked into the room and openly hugged him, and his new girlfriend and sat right behind them waiting for court to start. Like they were best friends. She totally fawned over my ex in open court like she was a schoolgirl with a crush. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Luckily for me, her incompetence is what got her. She had my kids names listed completely wrong in her report and messed up several dates. My lawyer ate her for lunch and had her report struck from the record and she was never allowed to testify. That is what saved me that day. Avoid this woman at all costs. She is truly terrible and should have her law license stripped away.

Celia “handled our case” in the early 2000’s. She was in the same building as my ex husband in my case, and adored him. Sat with him in Court, as I navigated my way through my custody case, on my own. She was dumbstruck when my ex admitted to being an addict on the stand because “she never saw what I was telling her”, in the times that my abusive ex had visit with her. With her outstanding Pink Panther skills intact, she also failed to show that a woman who drove the kids (on his time, because love, ya know) used a breathalyzer to drive at all. Oh well, “the kid’s best interest” and all. The horror of admission swayed her none, to continue her journey to ask that custody be given to my Mr Jekyll, who was “suffering from terminal cancer”. Hence, “children need their father”. I paid him child support, to the tune of $85000 dollars over the years, as a single abused gaslight controlled mother. He threatened the authorities for non payment, but never gave our children any. He has still never spoken to me about them. Harned said that she would not write the corrections, nor consider the new evidence, and harassed me for years for payment. Enter bankruptcy era. It is 2023, and my boys are 22, and 24. A movie just came out called “The Son”. I dedicate this movie to all of the quiet humans who have “lived through” Celia Harned. Celia, YOU have had power for far too long. Your reviews and testimonials stay in the skeletons closet, but our children detest your very existence. There are so many reviews you have not seen, do research, and stop this child predator.

I hope to write this review & help anyone else that chooses to use her in a case as a CFI to help your family. DON'T DO IT. She is bias & spends her time seeking info that will prove her point even if it's not what's best for the child. She is untrustworthy & does her job poorly. She was a CFI in our case & did not help our case even with many facts that prove my ex was not making proper parenting decisions. She did nothing to help the well being of our son who is still under the control of my negligent ex 50% of the time. The court takes their opinion too seriously. She did not take any of the abuse my ex put me thru seriously simply because it wasn't physical. Emotional & verbal abuse/control is still abuse. It still affects the parenting decisions made by my ex husband.

Unfortunately my case was complicated to being with. Dealt with an abusive ex spouse and has plenty of records to prove plus reported child abuse which was investigated and found to be unsure if actually happening although my child did tell multiple people / professionals about the abuse from her bio dad. No questions in my mind where the Colorado Justice system lives. On top of it all she took the side of the abuser! Kudos to her! Karma is right around the corner!

I don’t even know where to start. All of the reviews saying she is biased and one sided are absolutely true. She chooses a side before starting the cases. She spends all her time trying to prove her point. She investigates the cause of the divorce vs the care of the child. Every time she hung up with one of the people she called to interview they would call me and ask who the nasty woman was that just called them and why was she working so hard to prove my ex was the superior parent. One even asked her who hired her because she is clearly one sided. She also lied about things said in “private conversation “ with my son. She said he told her things he clearly did not and didn’t even know where it came from when asked about it. This woman is nasty and has no business being in the system. I have so much more I could say but won’t. I’m not one to just go around attacking peoples character or pouting when I done get my way. That’s not what I’m doing here. The results of my case worked out due to mutual agreement but I still feel I need to say something to let others know to watch out. This woman will screw you if she decides she doesn’t like you. If you are clearly the better parent, watch out. If you are the victim, watch out. If you have references galore, watch out. If you submit a full report supporting your case, she won’t read it, watch out. If you are conservative, watch out. If you own a gun, watch out. Prepare yourself for a biased and judge mental attack. Why is she even still practicing law? Oh that’s right, because the court “appoints” her as a “professional”. She couldn’t make it on her own otherwise. My heart truly goes out to all the families Celia Harned has destroyed and will continue to destroy. May God be with you all.

Ms. Harned is a completely biased CFI who will not rely on recent psychological studies...or any studies. Just ask her. Celia: "The studies show [my parenting plan] is in the best interests of the child." Me: "What studies are you referring to?" Celia: "The studies show this." Me: "Well, can you name a few?" Celia: "I don't have time to list all of the studies; you'll have to look them up." It is telling when someone practicing for as long as she has been but can't name a single study to back up anything. Her CFI report was completely biased. She shaped facts by leaving out details that would be damning to the other party. I also can confirm spelling mistakes and carelessness in obtaining facts. I live outside of Colorado and wanted a live virtual interview, which was denied. I still sent videos; I asked obvious questions about the videos to test whether she actually watched them. Nope. Now I have a Court Order that adopted her "report" almost verbatim.

Celia was the CFI for my grand daughter's case that involved Celia having to conduct telephone interviews with out of state family members. She spent more time disclosing her opinions than she did asking intentional, information gathering questions pertinent to the case. It was clear from my "interview" that she had already determined what her recommendations would be. These recommendations were based on nothing more than her own biased impressions without any supporting professional insight or facts. She is a poor interviewer with little to no communication skills. I am a Clinical Social Worker with experience in the child welfare system. I supported involving a CFI because in theory it is suppose to provide an objective, informed viewpoint of what is in the best interest of the child. Being from out of state, I assumed the CFI would be an attorney with additional education and training since these can be emotionally charged situations with a lot at stake for entire families. I was extremely disappointed and would caution any family to circumvent this process at any cost. Even the experience of dealing with Celia was unpleasant and left me feeling mislead and manipulated.

I would never recommend Celia as a CFI to anyone she is unfair and I’m bias she does not recommend wants the best for people and situations and include both sets of parents which should be she lets the children control more of the decision making and adults with adults around by the children and nowadays he could see why our children or our control because they are not disciplined and they do not respect adults and this is a woman that does not do any guidance for anyone or help out anyone in any situation

This women did an awful investigation in our case. She would not look at my info which was extensive. She was very one sided and reported falsely on our case. In my opinion she is a con women. She ignored sexually inappropriate behavior on the fathers side along with domestic violence. She would not even hear me speak amd when i tried to record the conversation she stopped the interview. This woman should not be in this position. She placed my child with a man who had 3 dependency and neglect convictions.

Celia Harned was assigned on my family court case. If I can provide any advice, please attempt to work things out with an ex without the court's intervention. Whenever the legal system has to step in to decide what's best for your child, it is an unfit circumstance. It is essentially impossible. With that said, if you do have to involve the courts, then you and your ex definitely need to agree on a Child Family Investigator (CFI) from a list you can request from the court or do an online search. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT be defaulted or let the Courts assign you this person, Celia Harned! I have worked with many attorneys on various issues and have never met one as incompetent as this "attorney". There was no thorough investigation but rather a very lazy attempt done with haste. Even when details were provided in writing from other entities to Celia Harned, she could not articulate or summarize them in the report for the court?!? Her final report was as if a grade school child had written it. I will also add the courts was not unfavorable in its decision based on the facts toward me, however, it did require going beyond Celia Harned's brief. Celia Harned's reporting was subjective on my behalf and being the honest person I am, I even spoke up in Court on my ex's behalf as her reports made him out to be the "bad" parent. This is an integrity issue and I could never again work with such a dishonest and unscrupulous and "attorney". She is the dregs of legal representation! I did some research on Celia Harned as an attorney. Celia Harned is a Court appointed attorney who receives all her clients from the Court. This means she gets ALL of her assignments from the Family Courts and do not have any private practice clients. She regularly works with lower income or uneducated clients and hence she biases reporting against who she subjectively chooses. There is no legal recourse because either party aren't financially able to do so. Lastly, the maximum a CFI, by recent law, can make for family investigations is $2000 ($1000 from each party). At the time Celia Harned was assigned to my family court case, she was demanding additional monies from me until I found this fees cap online. Again, this "attorney" practices are unscrupulous and legally liable with anyone who is willing to pursue. I took the time to write this because I want to help those who are in a family struggle so that both parties can hopefully work things out. If you leave your children in the hands of the Courts or much, much worse in the hands of Celia Harned, you will possibly regret it.

Celia was twice a CFI on my case. She was fair and honest. She saw the allegations against me for what they were, and effort to keep my son from me. I have her, at least partially, to thank for the relationship I’ve enjoyed with my son over the years. Thank you Celia.

Previously I was assigned Ms. Harned to my case and I had many of the issues and/or complaints that others have cited. She did not seem to care about me as a father figure, that meaning, and I quote, "I will never approve you to see your child unsupervised," This came after a ten month stent of supervised visitations that were nothing but positive. Here is my concern, my case has now been delayed over two years and the court has once again remanded me back to Ms. Harned AGAIN!!! Of course I protested, but was denied. I even stated to the court all the terrible reviews that were posted, and I had these complaints before I read the reviews. I may not be the smartest person in the world, but when I see first hand the incompetence and the "continuing" pattern posted online, I ask, how is this person slipping through the cracks with our legal system and being allowed to continue to practice within our judicial system. Unfortunately I have to deal with her yet again and pay her. This time I am going in with back up with all these posts in hope to get her removed from my case. I agree with everyone else that has said to get a different attorney!