Reviews

Divorce is a pain. I attempted to file on my own and made a mess of things. Gabrielle and the team at Smith and Strong understood and made the process worry and pain free. If I could do it all over again I would have come to them first. I will always recommend them.

Alex Phillips was more than I could ask for in council for myself and son. As a new mother, there is a lot of uncertainties, even more that come with custody/visitation/support. Alex was always there to answer everything honestly, whether I wanted to hear it or not. When he says “don’t worry” though, believe it. I had a difficult case where my sons father was going for primary physical and full legal custody with addition to a GAL, on the furthest side from mine. Alex fully prepared me for this hearing, and the end result was more than I could ask for! I can not thank him enough!

I received a referral to Smith Strong from a good friend, and I could not have been more pleased with my experience. It is stressful and unpleasant going through a separation and divorce, but Heidi Lewis made the process so much smoother! Heidi and the other staff at Smith Strong were 100% professional, courteous, timely and very kind at each and every encounter and communication. I would highly recommend them to a friend or family in need!

I can't say enough great things about Van and his firm! I have already recommended him to one friend and will to anyone else I can. Van Smith and Gabrielle Dennis have taken amazing care of me and the same follows for all the staff. This has been an incredibly stressful time in my life and everyone at the firm have been nothing but kind, empathetic, and very professional. Questions are answered quickly via email or phone and Van and Gabrielle made every effort to accommodate my schedule. The immense relief I felt after working with Van is immeasurable. I can't speak highly enough of his calm demeanor and decisive action to do what was right for me.

After attending a free lesson Van Smith taught on wills and estate planning, we worked with Van to figure out my father-in-law's plans. Van took the time to meet and discuss each detail of the plan, including significant time explaining the trust that he helped establish. He is an incredible teacher and made both my wife and father-in-law very comfortable with the plan they developed. After the trust was established, Van was available for some follow-up calls to answer a few clarifying questions. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Smith Strong on estate planning. An patient teacher and brilliant attorney.

I would advise against using Smith Strong, based on my experience. I used them to open a custody case for me in the beginning of 2016. To begin, I was given very positive encouragement as to the strength of my case by the attorney assigned to represent me in this matter. This advice would end up ruining me, financially speaking, for a time. My attorney failed to realize that the way the court measures income was different than the third party arbitration entity that had arbitrated our initial custody agreement. This resulted in my support going from 750/m plus half of daycare costs to an astounding 2300/m. She did not inform me of this until we were coming upon the final hearing. It was too late. This was information I had needed before deciding to ever open the case. She had my income from the very beginning. Furthermore, during this same time they charged me over 20k+ for a single pretrial hearing, a short and unsuccessful arbitration hearing, and a final hearing. Not to mention she told me that if I wanted to do the divorce as well, then that would be a whole other matter as the two could not be done together. This was flat out false. My current attorney, Scott Cardani of Bowen Ten Cardani, filed both matters (support/custody and divorce) together in the circuit court of chesterfield county and they were appropriately handled as such. I visited countless law offices such as Cravens & Knoll, Bowen Ten Cardani, and others. Each firm guaranteed me this was a ridiculous amount to pay for a single custody and support matter. This would end up playing out. I have now had multiple custody, support, and divorce hearings and I have just reached half of what they charged me for the one pretrial, arbitration, and final hearing on custody and support (10 thousand). Not to mention that my situation has improved. I pay less child support and was cleanly divorced. All for approximate half of what they charged me for one set of hearings on custody and support. In the interest of transparency, I will state that in speaking with the owner of the firm, he did state that mistakes were made and refunded me just over two thousand dollars. However, this does not make up for the over seventeen thousand I still paid them as well as my child support jumping to over half of my take home pay. I do not like to leave bad reviews and this review is coming a couple years after my dealings with them. But I recently ran into a young woman who was being represented by this firm and she told me a very similar experience. Therefore, after a lot of thought, I have decided to write this review. I hope it helps. If anyone would like more information for their own decision making process, you can private message me and I will be more than willing to discuss it.

Keith Jones handled my traffic case with my receiving the most favorable outcome in court. He was very professional and effective, and took time to meet with me and make sure I was fully prepared. I don't know what more one could ask for.

I have the honor and pleasure to call Van Smith my attorney. This is my first time needing a family law attorney so it would of been very easy to mislead me or overcharge me for services. Both Van and his team coached me through the process step by step and even would advise me on ways that I could save money. I would highly recommend choosing this firm.

Best Family Law firm in Virginia- If only I could give more than five stars. When dealing with a difficult divorce/custody case- this is the place to go. From a Client's perspective here are reasons why this is the place to go to: 1. Van Smith pays very close attention to crucial details at the most critical times in the case. His ability to recall intricate details that I would have otherwise not known to consider myself proved to be outstanding; and truly sets him apart from other attorneys. 2. The responsiveness of the firm far exceeds any other law firm that you will find. I can attest that I often had urgent questions and concerns that needed to be addressed rather quickly, and van and/or his firm was always fast to respond. 3. Van's superior knowledge of the law and legal expertise put me in the best position possible, to achieve the best outcome I could have possibly gotten. Through his advice and legal consultation; I was able to navigate a very difficult and stressful path with as much ease as possible. 4. I was NEVER overcharged for legal expenses- rather just the opposite. If I ever had a question about a bill, there was a staff member always available on site to answer any questions that I had. 5. Van's litigation skills proved to be far superior than that of very strong opposing counsel. My case was so complicated, I felt lost that anyone could handle my case. However, Van was able to always be ten steps ahead, and had legal foresight to have litigation skills that are far superior not only to opposing counsel, but to any other attorney that I have encountered. Lastly, Van always provided me with very realistic expectations and kept me abreast of any new developments in my case almost immediately as they occurred, so I was never left in the dark. Take home message from this review, is that not only is this firm quick to respond and advocate for you, the litigation results speak for themselves. Van and his team were able to achieve for me the best outcome possible, thanks to superior litigation skills and knowledge of the law

Simply put - these people are the best. I am so thankful I chose Smith Strong to represent me. The entire staff has been competent, friendly and a joy to work with. In particular, my attorney Jamie Allgood has been extremely professional and hard working as she has worked through my case. She is terrific - a nice balance between being an extremely competent and professional attorney while still being sensitive to the feelings of both myself and the other party involved in my case.    Mine was a very difficult and lengthy case, but her outstanding abilities have made this go as smoothly as possible.    Again, I am so thankful I chose Smith Strong to represent me and I have already encouraged two different friends to contact them for their own issues.