Reviews

My case was a domestic violence one and I had placed a TPO on my spouse. She is known for helping with domestic violence cases and seemed good. Well, when it came time to discuss with the other party the terms of the child visitation, she made decisions that were what my spouse wanted rather than what I wanted. She made it seem like I had no other choice. I wanted the child visitation exchange to occur at a visitation center, but instead she arranged with the other party to have it at his house. What's the point in a restraining order if you're going to make me go to his house? It was a scary situation for me. Eventually other arrangements were made. As my attorney, I never felt like I was getting support from her. She was constantly discussing things with the other party and I felt like I couldn't trust her to represent my case so that my child's best interests were considered. Another thing that I truly hold against her is that she would purposely prolong the conversation so that she could clock in more time on my case. For instance, she would chat about tips on how I can help my son with teething issues and count that as time against me. It was pretty unethical.

My ex-husband served me with an ex-parte order in 2014. The hearing was 11 days after I was served. Needless to say, I was in a bind and needed a lawyer fast. I found Kelly through someone I knew, and she was able to take my case last minute (and for a small retainer, which is a plus). However, I truly believe I was pigeon-holed as a "bad mother" from the beginning, and feel I was treated as if I should just "take what I can get" because I won't get custody of my child. At mediation, I felt pressured by her to give the other side (my ex) everything he asked for. When I told her I didn't want to agree, and wanted to take my chances in court, she told me that I should just agree to what was being offered, because it could be a year before a judge saw me and no judge would ever give me more than every other weekend with my child (who I've raised alone since day ONE). She told me I wouldn't win, so I needed to sign the agreement. I felt like I had no other choice, and because of my lack of legal knowledge, I consented to an order stripping me of most of my parental rights. It's been a year and a half since then, and guess what? I'm doing my case pro se, and the judge is actually giving me my child back. I should've had a stronger voice when it came to that, but I went with what my lawyer said. Over $8000 for one and a half sessions of mediation and ONE court hearing, and I ended up in an even worse predicament than before. She might be a wonderful lawyer to someone else, but if you've got any sort of past at all, don't bother with her. If you're lawyer can't see that people can change after their mistakes, they're not a lawyer for you.