Melanie Corbin Rice

Ms. Rice handled my divorce case which also involved custody and visitation of my children. I am a former military wife. Ms. Rice exhibited extreme knowledge concerning military retirement and other military benefits. She was aware of and prepared the special orders that were required to divide mi...litary retirement accounts. Ms. Rice and her staff were always responsive to my calls. Ms. Rice answered my numerous questions and gave me legal advice that was always accurate. I would recommend Ms. Rice as an excellent family lawyer. If I have any need for a family lawyer in the future, Ms. Rice will be my first call.

I hired this attorney to represent me during a contested divorce. I not only lost everything to the woman that I divorced, I ended up losing my entire savings to this over paid, incompetent buffoon and the law firm that she represents. I had my concerns about her preparation of my case, so I schedul...ed an appointment to talk with one of the law firm's partners about my concerns. Needless to say that approach did not work in my favor, as the partner is as big or maybe bigger culpret. This attorney is not making the grade. I was told at the law firm that she has credentials to handle a military divorce; however, in my experience, she has absolutely no loyalty to her client. I completed all of the paperwork as requested, and low and behold, if the ex-spouce didn't get the property, the attorney did. She was a complete disappointment. I was charged for things on their itemized sheets that I could not believe. Let me provide one example, everytime she picked up my case she had to re-read the entire case folder and charged for for re-reading the entire case folder even though nothing had transpired in the case. I paid for total incompetence! She is a Gem.

I hired this lawyer after a reference was given to me to handle a complex military divorce. She has solid credentials but lacks the morals to refrain from taking you to the cleaners while she should have your best interest in mind and keep you on the right side of the law. She was also a complete... disappointment as far as a professional, did not keep me informed, did not return phone calls or emails, she did not prepare me for the first time we went to court. In addition she was not prepared to put me in the best position possible. I was charged such an excessive amount just to get a pendenté lite hearing. Not only did she over charge over her professional ability, her staff is out of this world expensive too. You will pay an inflated price for every email, phone call, text message and stamp you receive from her office. After going to the first court appearance I fired her and contacted the VA State Bar to be referred to another lawyer. I was very hesitant to fire her mid divorce but it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. My new lawyer felt so bad that he did not charge me to completely review all my previous documentation and start new motions for the first month. When I did not receive a bill from him, his exact words to me were "She performed an operation on your checkbook, and I feel bad". Bottom line: At the time I fired her I had already spent over 20k and accomplished nothing beneficial. When you are going through a divorce, you should be able to trust a lawyer to not take advantage of your finances, but that was not my experience. Do your homework before you hire this lawyer.