Michele Lynne Bermel Esq

I am writing this review based on my experience with Michele, who was appointed as my children’s attorney during my divorce and custody proceedings. At the suggestion of my ex-husband and my attorneys at the time, we retained Michele to represent the interests of our three children. Unfortunately,... my experience was extremely disappointing. Michele had lengthy interviews with each of my children, yet during court proceedings she was unable to remember basic information about them, including their correct ages. I found this particularly concerning given her role and the amount of time she had spent speaking with them. I also felt that Michele’s advocacy was heavily weighted in favor of my ex-husband rather than focused on what was truly in the best interests and well-being of our children. I was particularly concerned by the close relationship she appeared to have with my ex-husband’s attorney, as well as the way information was communicated to her during the proceedings. There were also instances in which my son contacted Michele directly regarding allegations about things I had supposedly done. I did not feel these communications were handled in a way that appropriately considered the circumstances or protected my child from being placed in the middle of the conflict between his parents. Ultimately, I did not feel that Michele adequately advocated for the emotional well-being or best interests of my children. My attorneys ultimately requested that she be removed from the case, and we ultimately hired new attorneys to represent the children. Based on my experience, I would not recommend Michele to other parents seeking an attorney to independently represent their children during a contentious custody proceeding.

It has been years and I still struggle to find a way to find forgiveness for Michele Bermel. My divorce finalized 10 years ago. I was just going through old paperwork and was reminded that we cashed out some our children's college funds to pay for her. It's shameful that we let our divorce get tha...t contentious that a law guardian was needed for our children in the first place, but don't assume a person named a law guardian actually cares about the highest and best interests of the children. She was friends with the judge. I couldn't protect my children from her once the judge ordered her into our lives. You have to be very very careful with law guardians for children. They are brought in when the divorce is contentious and are supposed to maintain neutrality. There's generally a higher income producing spouse - that's the one Michele aligned with in our instance. It wasn't about my kids. It was about being funded by my X to appeal to the judge for whatever my X happened to want that week. Transparency was nonexistent. She would manipulate my children behind closed doors to the point that one of them taped her during session and the judge still kept her with my children. She would blatantly lie in court. It was horrible with my kids tossed like roadside carnage. My youngest daughter would beg me to not have to go to her and complained often about stomachaches before going. If you have a law guardian, you have no choice. You have to take your kids there no matter how much they beg not to go. I tried to have the law guardian reassigned with a laundry list of blatant documented issues where she showed lies, manipulation and a true lack of care for my children or their highest and best interests, but I didn't file the paper "correctly" so the judge wouldn't consider it regardless that it revealed a true abuse of her role. It was a horrible, horrible experience. IMHO - Keep your kids far far FAR away from Michele Bermel. One day, I'm going to write a story about law guardians. It's scary when people that abuse that position come near your children. There is nowhere near the accountability there should be in that field. No true organization overseeing law guardians. Grab your children's hands and run from Michele Bermel. I thought she was going to retire long ago. In my opinion, she will be doing children a favor when she finally does.

From my experience, she skewed our conversations to support her decisions. Often she wouldn’t follow parent coordinator protocols; she’d rehash issues that were already decided, engage in lengthy one-one conversations, and broach topics that weren’t hers to decided all of which ended up costing m...e $20,000 a year. She’d regularly bill three months late and repeatedly promised to bill more timely and never did. She became irate with me when I couldn’t pay and told me that I could open up another credit card to pay her because her husband was out of work and she needed a new roof. She was friends with the other sides attorney and never disclose that to me. They were even Facebook friends. The judge called into question her decisions which she had no supporting evidence for and reprimanded her several times. Thankfully, the judge removed her. Michelle asked if she could stay on even after the judge removed her. Both sides said no. She have to make up that income elsewhere maybe actually work for it.