Reviews

I hired Amy for a custody case. In 10 months Amy did absolutely nothing except take my money. She kept having excuse after excuse. Do not hire Amy if you want represented in a legal case. I have never seen more unprofessional business practices. I am disabled and feel she took advantage of me.

Hired to do custody case for our son/grandson. She talked a good game in person but delivered no results. We went weeks without a word from her. We had to initiate all communication and she always had an excuse for her failure to act. She is lazy. We paid her in full in January of 2020. We fired her in October and have since hired another lawyer who has already done more in one visit that she did in 10 months. Don't make the same mistake we did.

Super

In November of 2016 I seperated from my wife and moved out of the marital home. I have two daughters with my ex wife and she wasn't allowing me to see or spend time with them. At that point, i realized the help of an attorney was neccessary. I was referred to attorney philips. Upon my initial meeting with attorney phillips, her first question to me was "what would your children say about you". I replied they would say "im a good father". Attorney Phillips proceeded with a line of questions. She accepted my case and was extremely dedicated, responsive, comforting, compassionate, helpful, agressive( when needed). Attorney Phillips represented me in child custody, divorce and child support matters. Because of attorney phillips expertise and experience, i now have joint custody and i am divorced. Thank you attorney Phillips for all of your help.

At first seemed like she was very on the ball but that quickly changed. Extremely slow to reply to email and phone calls, and will admittedly avoid clients for months at a time. Talks out of both sides of her mouth. Will say one thing in person and will say something completely different in writing. We sat in her disorganized office and watched her search for nearly 10 minutes for a book that “disappeare” no doubt we still paid for that complete waste of time. The whole thing was a disaster. She would say she was starting to file contempt charges and then a month later when we followed up checking on the status (after multiple unreturned phone messages and unanswered emails) she finally replied saying she was dragging her feet and that charges shouldn’t actually be filed. She made us look completely foolish to my ex, and my ex knew nothing we said would ever come to fruition. She was happy to take our money but certainly did not advocate for us. When we found alternate council who would actually communicate with us in a timely fashion and represent us, she said she would be sending any pertinent documents in our file to our new council immediately. We followeded up a week later when our new council had still received nothing and were told they weren’t sending anything. Save yourself the headache and go with anyone but her.

Amy was awful. My wife filed for divorce and to relocate my daughter out of state. This was the entire reason I needed to hire a lawyer, to fight this action. Her office is literally next door to the courthouse and Amy refused to file required documentation. I found out at the hearing that the paper was never filed and therefore I could not technically argue against my child being moved out of state. Secondly, she used emails to charge me to an extreme degree. She would send me an email recommending something (of course something very expensive). I would decline. She would then write back explaining again her recommendation. She would do this 4-5 times per questions, naturally charging me for each and every email. I was a victim of domestic violence which occurred in front of my child. I told her about this and her advice was that we not bring it up during the hearing, that we take "the high road". I listened to her (like an idiot). Let's just say that the opposition surely did not take the high road and they blew us out of the water. I had four witnesses present to testify on my behalf at the hearing. She had contact information for these people for WEEKS leading up to the hearing. The first and only time she spoke with them was the morning of the hearing as we walked the 1/4 mile from her office to the courthouse. In total, I spent maybe 10 hours with Amy. At least 6-7 of those hours were the day of the hearing. She charged me almost $20,000 for these services. I once asked her where I could find a certain form (public legal form available at the courthouse). She said she would send me the form. She charged me $50. I made a huge mistake trusting this person. A mistake I will be paying for a long time. Do not waste your time. You are better off doing some online research and representing yourself. That is exactly what I did the second time around (after my daughter was moved 500+ miles from me). I relocated to the state where she now lives, filed for joint custody, and got everything I wanted because I knew my story and I knew what was right/wrong.

Amy actually ended up being the opposing council in my custody case. She represented my ex-husband who had addiction and anger issues. Even though she was doing her job by representing him to the best of her ability, she was always very professional and kind to me, my children and my attorney. I felt like she really cared about what was best for my kids and tried to find a way to do right by them but still help them have a chance at a relationship with my ex.

Dave Schanbacher was retained for a relocation and custody hearing and from the first moment was dedicated to helping me prepare and win my case. His knowledge of family law is unparalleled and his straightforward approach was appreciated. Dave is a thorough and skilled attorney, and I highly recommend him to anyone seeking representation in Family Law. His preparation and work in the court room left opposing counsel fumbling and grasping at straws. Thank you for all that you did for us.

As I near $40k, over a year and a half in divorce expenses, I could not imagine having a better lawyer and ally than Dave Schanbacher. In divorcing the daughter and sister, of two county judges (from the county in which we and our children live), Dave has brought knowledge and accountability to a flawed system. His profound expertise has enabled him to sort out fact from fiction, and to beautifully navigate what is clearly an uphill battle, and this arduous process. While we still have much work to do, I can’t imagine having a better and more trustworthy attorney. My only regret, is that I didn’t hire Dave as my first attorney; instead opting for a local, and egregiously less talented local (Bellefonte) attorney.