Amanda Elizabeth Schmidt

I met with 2 other lawyers before meeting with Amanda and I am grateful to the friend who recommended her to me. Amanda was willing to invest in my need and desire to get what was rightfully mine by law. She understood the anger and hurt I experienced at the surrealistic ending of a 40 year marriage.... I always felt she had my best interest at heart and I felt comfortable asking questions. She worked hard to get to the truth by getting court orders for financial information not disclosed during discovery. She always kept me informed of options. I will be forever in her debt for helping me trudge forward at a time when it would have been easier for me to sit down and cry.

The worst experience! I filed for divorce in August of 2022 before the divorce laws changed even though the law changes went into effect on October 1,2023 and did not apply to cases filed prior to that she enforced the changes which only benefited my ex. As my counsel Amanda Schmidt never made me awa...re of the changes or how they would affect my case and just took it upon herself to make the changes without notifying me until it was to late. Sadly my ex husband could have won this case without an attorney representing him with the new law changes.

As if going through a divorce isn’t Bad Enough, hiring an attorney like Amanda Schmidt with the law firm Ward Pratz & Associates located in Glen Burnie, Maryland just makes the whole situation that much more abusive, painful and expensive. My brother’s wife had plotted/planned and was able with the h...elp of the State of Maryland to get him restrained from his home, with nothing but the clothes on his back. My brother’s wife had soaked him in mace and called the police. When the police got there they asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital and when he said no they gave his wife possession of everything (all his keys) and took him to jail. When he got out of jail he had “NOTHING” thanks to the police and our useless judicial system, so my mother helped him financially. She was 85 years old and working in a school cafeteria for less than the attorney fees a month, but would put some of her savings with her pay check and pay the bill every month. Now for why you should stay clear of Ward Pratz & Associates. When we met with Amanda Schmidt she came on strong. She stated that men aren’t treated right in the state of Maryland (if you’re a woman you can probably replace the word men with women because I’m sure a woman would hear the same sell pitch), got into what all she was going to do and wanted a retainer of $1200. She missed her calling she should have been a salesperson. Anyway, she convinced us that she was going to help my brother. I spent hours searching the internet for case info, printing pictures to present as evidence, coping laws to reference, writing to Judges, etc. I printed out and gave Amanda so much stuff to work with, if she would have used it I think my brother would have gotten something out of his 37 year marriage. I could fill the internet up with things she didn’t do for my brother, but it would take but a second to tell you what she did “Nothing”. After the court gave his wife everything and the case was over my brother, mother and I met with Cathleen Ward about how Amanda had handled the case. During this meeting Cathleen Ward said that “it was a difficult case”, at which time mother replied “if it was too difficult for you why didn’t you said so instead of just keep taking my money”. What this tells me is that if you could settle out of court and really don’t need an attorney (in other words, uncomplicated, straightforward and requires no labor/work), and you just want to pay thousands of dollars to have someone sit beside you in court than this is the law firm for you. Going though a horrible divorce and losing everything is abusive enough without being totally used up financially and mentally by attorneys. The result would have been the same without this law firm, BUT mother would still have her $12,000. Amanda was totally useless.