Steven Patrick Monaghan

I hired Mr. Monaghan based upon a close friend’s recommendation. The first time I met him, he instantly had the ability to put my mind at ease. I had a complex legal problem which he was able to talk me through easily. He was very knowledgeable and quickly developed a great strategy to ensure that... I got the best deal possible, which I did. He did everything in his power to make sure that I was protected. While he was kind to me as a client, he was a fierce adversary. He never backed down from his position which was ultimately upheld by the Court. I walked away with nearly everything I wanted. There is no question that I will hire Mr. Monaghan for any future litigation. He was very responsive to my e-mails and telephone calls. He made sure that I was comfortable with the legal proceedings. His knowledge of the law was remarkable. Overall, he was great. I would recommend him to anyone. J.P.

I hired Steven Monaghan to work on my post judgment divorce case. He impressed me during our first interview. However, he rarely returned phone calls in a timely manner. Days could go by while I waited for him to call me and when I would call to make sure he had gotten my message his receptionist wou...ld act completely surprised. When I told him that I was thinking of hiring another attorney he said that would change and blamed his unresponsiveness on the fact that he was busy with another case. Unfortunately, I allowed him to continue and he was better for awhile but generally he called when it suited him. He always had an excuse and it always involved being tied up with another case. Divorce cases are so stressful. Why add to the stress by hiring an unresponsive attorney? He could be very dismissive. When I had to give my input for a court document I worked hard to write my story the way I wanted it told and he or his paralegal would water it down or cut out entire paragraphs and I would see their version of my story when there was no time to change it because of filing deadlines. In the meantime my ex-husband was writing motions that painted me in the worst light and I believe SM's wishy-washy answers which usually didn't even address my ex's spiteful and injurious comments gave weight to the things that he said about me. On another occasion when we were having an email exchange and I was asking serious questions he dismissed me with the following comment: "I know your ex gets under your skin". Any exchange with a lawyer is paid for by the client. I resented the fact that I was paying him to make condescending comments assessing my relationship with my ex-husband. My case was winding down at that time and I believe he was tired of dealing with it. I had paid him well over 20 thousand dollars and he was starting to encourage me to drop my case which I had no intention of doing at that point and I certainly didn't need a lawyer who was giving me the message that he was "over it". I also believe he handled the deposition poorly. That was his one opportunity to question my ex when he was under oath about things that I had brought up repeatedly such as how he paid for his $2.6 million house. My ex said he got the money from his savings. MS never bothered to ask him how he had saved up so much money. He barely addressed the things I wanted addressed and his questioning was very shallow. I was so disappointed in the way he was handling my case that before we were scheduled to go to trial I hired another attorney. I, of course, had to pay to have the documents copied and sent to the new attorney. That cost about $1000. When the documents arrived at my new attorney's office they were completely unorganized. I don't know if that was done deliberately but I then had to pay for the new law firm to organize the file. All of these situations contributed to my assessment of SM as disorganized, dismissive, condescending and anything but thorough. I believe SM allowed my case to get way out of hand and, unlike my new attorney, he never informed about what to expect. You can win one judgment and think you're going to get what you expect and then the opposing party can appeal. After the judge found for me in my first court date SM named a figure and told me how much money I was going to get from that judgment. What he didn't tell me was that a case like this can go on forever with appeals. When I eventually lost on another ruling his comment to me was "You'll get something". He failed to inform me about the negative possibilities and huge costs in such a case. Judging by the relatively quick and very satisfactory settlement that occurred under my new attorney who kept me well-informed about what can happen when you go to trial and the avoidance of a trial which resulted in my saving many thousands of dollars I realize my biggest mistake was hiring SM in the first place.