Vanessa Rochelle Dozier

When my wife/ex told me she wanted a divorce on 4/23/2018, I was upset, but I thought it should settle pretty easily and quickly. To make a really long story short, and as with most anything that you involve attorneys in, it didn't settle easily or quickly at all. It took right about 2 years. ... I hired Vanessa about halfway through- during the first year I'd had a friend representing me, but divorce wasn't his specialty/main practice area, and it was straining our friendship, so he withdrew and I started looking online for a lawyer. I read reviews on lots of lawyers, and found Vanessa's to ring home and feel honest and sincere, and her advertised hourly seemed quite reasonable. When I first contacted her, she told me her case load was too great, so I went off looking for someone else, but a couple days later she called me, told me she'd settled a case and had some time free up. I respected her for telling me she wasn't available when she thought she couldn't provide the time (I've had attorney's in the past who would take on more that they can reasonably manage- which leaves you feeling like you are paying a lot for them to pay too little attention to your issue), and I was glad when she called and agreed to work with me. And at that point, she couldn't have imagined the frustration my ex and her counsel would put us through for the next year. Vanessa was there with me to deal with some really ridiculous things through this process: protective orders that were totally unneeded, the deposition of an uninvolved 3rd party, countless settlement offers that more than fair and generous on our part yet immediately rejected by the ex and her counsel- it was honestly the most bitter dispute I've ever been involved in. We ended up never reaching any settlement and did actually have to go to court for a full 2 day trial--during which Vanessa really performed incredibly. She was well prepared and thorough, spoke well, and clearly made the points to the judge/court that we wanted made. My main goal of court, and the reason we never settled was that we could never agree what to do with the marital home. I wanted to keep it, my ex wanted it sold by trustee, and we could never agree to a price at which to sell the house- which I wanted to keep and live in anyway. In the end, the courts decision was to allow me to keep and refinance the house in my name alone (which I'm working on now and will get done soon), without my having to pay my ex anything for it- which was something that my ex's lawyer assured both Vanessa and her own client-would NEVER happen. And, I had offered my ex 50% of what my ex had spent on her legal fees for me to simply keep the house as recently as a week prior to the trial. So, without being specific (as this website has asked me to be), all said and done: Vanessa saved me about 50% of what my wife paid in legal costs over the course of 2 full years-. You can guess at the number, but I got what I wanted- to keep my home, and I got it for a much better deal than I'd already offered to pay for that privilege. I'd recommend Vanessa to anyone in need. She's thoughtful, smart, hard working, will return calls and emails promptly (sometimes emails are returned at 3am- she works a lot and odd hours sometimes), and Vanessa did care- both for my case, and as a matter of her personal pride- I could tell in the months before court that she was focused on getting me a decision that would make us feel like it was actually a "Win" after all that time. I really liked that. She took the time needed, she made my goals her own, she worked hard towards them, and Vanessa got us there in the end- we got the courts decision on 3/6/2020- so pretty much all of 2 years it took, but I'm happy, I'm sleeping better and the headaches from the divorce are over. And, I'm not the worlds easiest person to represent- I'm pretty demanding and had high expectations- but she got it done. I can't thank her enough.