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

Being young and new to these custody fights can be a pain in the butt. not knowing where to start, I had to meet with four different lawyers to actually find the best trustworthy family lawyer that seemed that wouldn't just rip you off. Although I seemed too young and had no type of knowledge on the... custody laws, Spencer and his firm treated me with respect, and supported me from day one, never felt like they took advantage of my money. He explained everything I needed to know and had put my mind to ease from the first day I met with him. He is very experienced, confident, and says it how it is. if you need a trustworthy law firm that will individually put all effort and attention to your case, you got your firm right here. give them a call , you'll see what I'm talking about!

I first spoke with Spencer Hecht during one of the most difficult times of my life. I contacted his firm only days before my custody hearing, yet Mr. Hecht did not hesitate to take on my case despite the very short notice. At the time, I was unsatisfied with my current representation, and needed an... aggressive attorney to attend an expedited hearing with me to regain custody of my child. Mr. Hecht was understanding and reassuring as I explained the details of my complex custody situation. He was knowledgeable about child custody and responded to my phone calls and emails promptly. After retaining Hecht & Associates, Spencer immediately paired me with a senior litigator of the firm to begin preparing for my case. He drafted a letter on my behalf to my former council and as a result I received a complete refund of the retainer I provided to this attorney. My experience with Mr. Hecht was nothing but positive and exceeded my expectations. Though he did not represent me personally, he made certain that my case received the immediate attention that was needed. I was represented by another professional, knowledgeable, aggressive member of his team that arrived to court confident and well prepared and I am thrilled to say that I was awarded Primary custody of my child! Every employee of the firm that I interacted with was not only professional, but helpful and I highly recommend Spencer Hecht of Hecht & Associate Law Firm to anyone seeking representation in a child custody matter. Their level of commitment and expertise exceeded my expectation. My child is now at home with me, and I could not be happier with the outcome.

We hired Mr. Hect in January of 2011 to help us get custody of my granddaughter. This should have been a very timely case because he had more than enough evidence provided by medical Dr's and therapists relating to the sexual and emotional abuse of my 18 mo old granddaughter. He knew my son was a...n enlisted Airmen in the US Air Force and said he would give us a discount. When he found out my oldest son an AF Captain was having to pay the bill he immediately started doing paperwork for emergency custody (charging us huge fees) and then never filing the paperwork. Stating .. well... lets just wait since you will be getting her back in a few weeks. Anyone who knows about child abuse knows 1 minute more in a dangerous environment is 1 minute too many. He was verbally rude and down right nasty in emails where we questioned his course of action ,motives or the charges. We found out he was charging us as if he was doing all the work and in reality it was his associate and a para legal doing ALL the work. Every time he showed up for court he knew nothing about the case and gave a rudimentary explanation to the judge. This angered the judge and we fired Hect before we ended up losing the case. We then hired his FORMER associate who did all the previous work on the case and we won! Hect even went so far as to hold up sending the case file to his former associate hoping he would not remember but thank God he had done all the original interviews and work and was able to hit the ground running and didn't need the case file. We won full sole custody of my granddaughter but we spent an entire year in the court system when we didn't have to all so he could draw it out and collect enormous fees. We are currently reporting him to the DC Bar Association and hope to get some of the $35,000 back that he charged us.

Mr. Hecht was incredibly knowledgable, persistent, and aggressive attorney who kept me calm during the entire process of obtaining a peace order. I felt confident having him on my side, and he kept me informed every step of the way. He was a pleasure to work with and his whole office was incredibly h...elpful.