Lawrence Joseph Marraffino

After consulting with several attorneys, I decided to go with Mr. Marraffino for my divorce. I saw his extensive experience and being a " board certified trial lawyer ". Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20. He is soft, passive, and is not aggressive when he has to be. We had an emergency hearing in... the summer to determine where our 2 small children would be attending school and daycare. Fortunately, the judge at the hearing had the common sense to see that the children needed stability and less disruption in their lives. Seeing I had my own place, stable job, and parents, siblings living nearby, the judge felt it was in children's best interest that they remain with me. Aside from that, he also ordered my ex wife to pay child support effective immediately. Nearly 7 months have passed since that hearing and my ex wife has yet to pay a cent. I have sent Mr. Marraffino several emails inquiring about the child support and daycare ( she was ordered to pay that as well ) and nothing was ever enforced. As a result, I was unable to make payments to him in a timely manner and as such, he refused to do anything about my case unless he was paid in full. When I told him that if he had done what he was supposed to do while he WAS my attorney, child support would have been enforced and he would be paid. Again, nothing was ever done. Prior to our final hearing, I stopped by his office to give him a list of witnesses that I wanted to testify. One particular witness, my ex sister in law, really wanted to testify to discredit my ex mother in law ( who works as a mental health counselor ) but needed a subpoena in order to attend. I had to borrow money from a friend to pay Mr. Marraffino for the subpoena. It was never processed or issued. He said no judge would ever allow somebody like that to testify as an expert witness. Turns out Mr. Marraffino was wrong. She testified that our son was fearful and nervous while with me and used her clinical experience to address possible outcomes. My ex sister in law could have rebutted her testimony because she went through the same thing with her divorce. She was married to my ex wife's brother. My son is never afraid of me. I love my children and have never harmed them physically, emotionally, sexually, etc. The judge believed my ex mother in law and Mr. Marraffino did nothing to counter. NONE of my witnesses were ever called by Mr. Marraffino or his office to attend the final hearing. Fortunately, I took it upon my self to call my parents, brothers to attend, the week of the final hearing in case he didn't call. Turns out I was right. He never advised me to bring in evidence ie. emails, photos, text messages, videos. My ex wife and her attorney had everything but the kitchen sink. Eventually, a new judge overturned all but 2 statutes that were originally in my favor from the first hearing. We nearly lost the case, but it took smart thinking on my part to convince the judge to watch video of me playing with our children to prove I wasn't abusive and neglecting. Fortunately, the children are still with me. The last straw was when the final order was completed. Mr. Marraffino told the judge he would have it ready in one week. 6 weeks later, I get a call from my ex wife asking questions about the order because she was sent a copy emailed from her attorney, who received it from Mr. Marraffino. If I had been given the opportunity to look at the order, I would have picked up on errors that were made on his behalf. As such, we are now scheduled for another hearing to amend the final order because of his lack of oversight and lack of courtesy to grant me the chance to look at the final order. My ex wife has to live within the same school zone should she return in order to get equal time sharing. I have since retained another attorney, who informed me that in their opinion, Mr. Marraffino ridiculously dropped the ball, and he should have let me look at the final order first.

I had Mr. Marraffino represent me in a divorce matter. At the first meeting he seemed great, but as the process went on he was unresponsive to my phone calls and e-mails. Worst yet, he would repeatedly forget the details of my case (that I have a child and that it would the other party asking for chi...ld support not me). Also wasted my time and charged me for it… I would show up to his office and he would start going over the same matter and paperwork we already have!! When time came to represent me in court, it was me who had to speak on my behalf not Mr. Marraffino (he for some reason fell silent) while the attorney representing my now EX had no problem speaking to a judge. Do not hire him in family law matters!!!

Spoke to Mr. Marraffino about my child support and timesharing case and he informed me on so much that could help my case. He listened to my situation and carefully guide me on what needs to be done and he also gave me knowledge about what a judge might consider in my case. He is a superb attorney an...d I would recommend Mr. Marraffino to anyone.

Mr. Marrafino too a good deal of time to listen to me explain my child support issue and ask all of the questions that had stumped me. He then advised me very well, one of his recommendations was not to hire him. With my newly acquired knowledge from Mr. Marrifino I feel much more confident going for...ward. I will definitely use his services again, he won my confidence.

I hired Lawrence Marraffino to handle my child custody case. Mr. Marraffino was honest about what to expect, he kept me well informed of all my court appearances and mediation. He was always direct, his fees were fair and he didn't over charge for actual time spent on my case. Mr. Marraffino never... sugar coated the odds I had in my case and let me know there was a possibility the outcome might not be as I'd hoped. However he fought hard to get me more time with my son. He was also able to reduced my child support to $0 since the time shared was more equivalent to 50/50 custody, and I was already paying all of the health insurance costs, plus I was able to get a more fair holiday schedule. In the end I got exactly what I wanted. I would strongly represent Mr. Marraffino in any case and will be hiring him again for any future needs.