Stephanie Mathiesen

Steer clear! Stephanie defaulted on motions for contempt filed against me. She did not even attempt to advocate for me as her retainer stated she would. On the day of the sentencing hearing she did not want to go to court and face the judge so she forced me to sign a consent to change attorney form a...nd sent me to court alone up against a seasoned attorney. To make matters worse she allowed my children to fall through the cracks of a terrible arrangement AND (unsuccessfully) sued me for counsel fees! Save your money and your children!

I was originally pleased with Ms,Mathiesen's work from the time I hired her to handle my divorce in August 2021 through early 2022. At that point things abruptly changed. She failed to provide the other attorney with documents I submitted in August 2021 . This came out during a court appearance in... February 2022. From that point on multiple instances of unanswered e-mails, promised phone calls that never came, last minute notice of court appearances, continuances, adjournments. At that point I downloaded the court calendar and now ask her to confirm that posted scheduled dates are still on. Money owed to me from my spouse that I was told would be coming never did. On all issues I have documentation. Changes in my monthly fee without any explanation. I've used lawyers for house closings, adverse possession case, litigation against a state agency. I never experienced the lack of communication and lack of professionalism as I have now.

Worked with Stephanie for a child support case. She signed paperwork without me seeing it and misrepresented what it said to me. Ended up costing me an additional $4000 in payments. She did not prepare any documents she stated she would and showed up to court empty handed despite statements to the ot...herwise. Then, she billed for things she stated would not be billable. Extremely poor communication in all aspects. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

After meeting and giving her $1,500 of a $2,000 retainer I felt I would be well represented in my custody and support cases. Four days later I received a call from Stephanie telling me it is a bad idea to drive my son to school while the case is still in court. She then said she would call me on Mond...ay. This was the first red flag. She never called. I waited till the end of the day on Tuesday and still no call. Stephanie had adjourned my case on 9/25/18 so I was anxious to know what the new date was. After still no communication I sent an email on 10/3/18 asking what the date is.Stephanie returned my email a few minutes later telling me she scheduled a conference on 10/10/18.With no mention of when my next court date was I let her know I will call the court myself and get the new date. Stephanie then emailed me on 10/3/18 and said she did not receive the new notice and still did not know what my new court date is. When I called the court I found out my new date was 10/10/18 the same day she said she already scheduled a conference without my knowledge. I was upset because this would have forced me to adjourn the case again. Meanwhile my son and I are suffering from an unfair visitation schedule. I know now that she scheduled the conference with my ex-wife's attorney on 9/28/18. I know for a fact my ex-wife knew the new court date on that same day. So either during the conversation between the attorneys on 09/28/18 there was no mention of the upcoming court date and Stephanie scheduled the conference on her own, Never confirming with me. She didn't even tell me about it until I asked her what my court date was. She finally told me 5 days later on 10/3/18 about the conference. So either she is incompetent and scheduled the conference without knowing the court date or she lied about not knowing the court date to benefit the opposing consul and was going to string me along to the last minute before i had a chance to back out. It wasn't easy I finally got my court documents back. HOWEVER Stephanie and her partner still charged me $672.50 for nothing. The worst part is that there is a brilliant 12 year old boy who just wants to spend time with his dad. His dad borrowing money in order to have a fighting chance in court and these disgusting people charged me money for nothing. My only hope is that in the retainer agreement it says no legal services will be provided until the $2,000 retainer is paid. It never was. So lets see what small claims court says. None the less it is my recommendation to stay far away from Stephanie