Spencer M Hecht

Hiring Spencer to represent me in a custody/divorce case was the worst mistake of my life. He sounded good at first and was very reassuring about how well he knows everyone in the MC court system and would handle everything but things quickly started to unravel. My then 10 year old daughter was in a ...verbally/physically abusive household with my ex-wife. I hired Spencer after a serious incident occured resulting in a protective order. He advised me to drop the order and then forgot about our PL hearing that was coming up. He scrambled to get everything prepared and get statements from my witnesses and the child therapist about 2 days before the hearing. When the PL hearing came, he never called my witenss nor did he call the therapist who were both on stand by. The judge stated that "this may be the worst decision I've ever made based on this testimony, If I could've heard from the therapist maybe things would be different." So, we obvioulsy lost the PL hearing and my child was forced to return to the home where she was being abused. I was furious, I demanded to know what he could to do to make this right. His suggestion? Let's go back to court and I'll give you a $2,000 credit because I made some errors. He quickly burnt this $2,000 on "research and processing data." We went back before the judge after my child started to self harm herself and again the judge denied any changes again because there was no therapist statement made. So now we wait until June for our divorce/custody hearing. Well the third day of court was scheduled to be on my ex's other kids HS graduation day. Instead of fighting this (again, my child is in an abusive home) he waived the white flag and accepted a future date of February (8 months later than promised). My kid finds this out and is devastated, the other side was also able to get her therapist fired and now assigned her a new one that my ex is buddy buddy with. My kid is now depressed, acting out, and still self harming. Nothing I can do about it. You can imagine how a father feels. I've now spent $25,000 to Hect for nothing. Our long-awaited February date is coming, Spencer re-emerges and starts to set up calls with me to discuss strategy and work on a settlement. The settlement was my idea because at this point we were destroyed in PL and had no chance to get sole custody. Spencer has agreed with everything the whole way. My concern now is to make sure the agreement is fair and child support is fair. He is prepping me for roughly $1700/month in CS for about a month prior to the hearing. This is important, please keep reading, about an hour before court begins he calls me and says he just ran the numbers and I'm looking at nearly double what he had previously told me in CS. I'm completely stunned. I ask, what should I do. His advice? Either make a deal or see what the judge says. Thats it. I'm now into him for $40,000 and this is the advice and treatment I get. We end up settling and I ask him how will support be garnished. He says it will take a few months, so I pay directly by check per his suggestion. He said he would call me the next day to review some things and discuss the balance on my account I was owed back. Guess what? MD chid support kicks in a few days later. So I paid double for the first month. I never get a call from him. I send him an email telling him how dissastified I'm with him and would like money back for the balance he never used. He then sends me an email as follows with no refund: Spencer Hecht <[email protected]> Mon, Mar 21, 4:48 PM to me Give me a day and I will outline all of the horrible decisions you have made through this litigation. You started by filing a ridiculous protective order and then moved in with your girlfriend during litigation while your child was in crises… I also got your income 100k lower. Your lack of responsibility is inexplicable. You gave up. Spencer M. Hecht Hecht & Associates, LLC 111 Rockville Pike Suite 740

After 8 months of a failed marriage and a newborn daughter, I reached out to Hecht & Associates for sole legal and physical custody, along with child support. Our challenge was dealing with a Defendant who pursued joint custody, attempted to withhold income, and provided inadequate responses through...out discovery. The discovery method used by this firm was extremely thorough and enabled me to enjoy the performance during trial. Not only was Spencer Hecht and Jonathan Stepanuk prepared with organized exhibits from discovery, they also demonstrated expertise by analyzing questionable income and expenses presented by my former spouse. The Judge was able to quickly ascertain inconsistencies based on Spencer's pointed questions when cross-examining the Defendant. Spencer calmly presented income and expenses (line-by-line), as the Defendant and opposing counsel failed miserably with their explanations. In summary, this firm did a fantastic job negotiating the outcome on my behalf. I received exactly what I paid for -- outstanding representation and a WIN!