S Maria Shiloh Averill

I had the WORST experience with Maria Averill. Maria Averill was very good upfront with selling me on her experience and ability to help. She was prompt and courteous before hired. She asked for a large retainer and then failed to communicate with me, emails and requests were just ignored, she billed... me for more than half of the retainer within the first 6 months, in which nothing but a piece of paper had been filed. She was rude when I did speak to her (I spoke to her assistant most of the time as she seemed to constantly be on vacation when I called). She was combative and very unprofessional at times (tried to prove me wrong when I pushed about issues with my case or my account). Getting any statement of account was nearly impossible and she created billable hours for anything to burn through the hefty retainer she requested. If I had not continuously persisted to get answers I am not sure she would have ever pursued any legal action in a timely manner. The work completed by her office is sloppy and often full of typos. She is either overloaded or she is just lazy. I don't know if any lawyer is decent and divorce is so difficult but do not hire this lawyer.

I hired S Maria Shiloh Averill to represent me during my contentious divorce. I had the WORST experience with Ms. Averill. As if divorce isn’t emotional and difficult (especially when young kids are involved), Ms. Averill made my experience 10 times more difficult and painful. I found her to be very ...emotional for an attorney (not to be confused with being “passionate”). For example, she would get worked up over little, routine litigation matters. She was combative and very unprofessional at times (e.g., communicating with me via text messaging, meeting at her office, etc.). Moreover I complained that she kept creating unnecessary billable hours and failed to supervise her paralegal. This ended up in increased legal fees and associated costs. All said and done, Ms. Averill failed to provide the type of counsel and “capable service” one would expect from a divorce attorney. I wouldn’t recommend her at all.