Michael Kevin Rathel

After choosing my exwife as my partner choosing him as my lawyer was the worst mistake of my life. I hired Michael Rathel. Flat rate for filing, flat rate for my exwife to respond. Total $7500. This was a long distance divorce and a case of parenting alienation. After I filed for divorce it took me ...more than 9 months to see my child. And more than a year to have him visiting me in my home town. He sent an associate to my deposition, another to my mediation and after he made me travel to Florida one day before the trial to meet with him to explain my case he cancelled the meeting. So he went to the court during the trial date unprepared and probably without even knowing my name. The opposing attorney aware of my attorney’s incompetence and disregard for the case took advantage of me. They were able to frame the alienation as abandonment. I am still paying the other lawyer attorney fees because he was not able to defend even that. (So I am paying more than I paid Mr. Rathel) My exwife violated the parenting plan claiming my child when it was not her turn in the taxes and his answer was go and see what you can do with the IRS. The child support was completely miscalculated. Multiple times I asked for the explanation on how it was computed. He never provide me with that information. He gave me all the other documents late too. I would know for example that my exwife had won the case because she was bragging about making me pay her attorney fees before my attorney had sent me the judge resolution. I received my final judgement roughly 3 weeks after it was given to him and it took me a week to get contact with him. It was too late to file an appeal. I went with another lawyer and computed the child support. He is impressed by the result of my case. My child support calculations include day care for a child that goes to school, my exwife’s but not my retirement mandatory fees are included, zero overnights for me (though he spends more than 80 nights a year with me). My exwife was able to modify the parenting plan as she wished because Mr Rathel would not contact me for the hearings. So he would probably just concede. I lost days with my son because she went to court ans ask for those days and he probably just conceded. Additionally, despite me providing him with all the checks of the money I had given to my exwife, the judge did not consider them because. I assume, Mr. Rathel, did not show them. So I have to pay inflated retroactive child support twice. He never answer calls. Now I need to hire another lawyer to solve whatever can be solved from the mess MR Rathel created in my life for his lack of professionalism. I am suspicious that he may have received money from the opposing side in order to screw me.

I hired Michael in Feb of 2015 for a simple paternity, none contested, case. Its now May of 2016 and I'm still waiting on my final hearing. He's unorganized, unreachable, unprofessional, and will put all the blame on you when you "light the fire under his ass" with the Florida Bar. When I finally har...assed him (multiple phone calls, emails, and text over a span of 2 weeks, all unanswered) in Feb of 2016 for an update and why it was taking over a year for this simple process, he told me he'd "look into my case and see what the problem was". He called me 2 weeks later and told me I was missing documents that he never informed me that I needed and blamed me for not knowing and completing the docs. I have done all the work on my case, he's done pretty much nothing. I've called the Florida Bar and complained. DO NOT HIRE THIS GUY TO BE YOUR LAWYER. He's very responsive when you wanna pay and hire him, but once he has your money, he's gone in the wind.

I hired mr rathel 2015 i was not pleased his flat rate of $5000 was to reel us in got our money did nothing to prepare us for trial family law case quit after our trial no phone call back from him he was supposed to draft my final oder he didn't he didn't notify me of a hearing that cost me m...y case will not recommend him to no one

I got arrested and this was the third lawyer I called. He answered his cell phone at 8pm on a Saturday night. I was able to have a phone meeting with him explaining what I had got arrested for (DUI) and that it was my first time ever getting arrested. He explained everything to me and gave me his fe...e over the phone. The fee was reasonable so I went in for a free consultation. I hired him and he did a great job. The staff was also very helpful but not as nice as the lawyer. This is the guy to go to if you did something stupid. It also helped that they took payment plans so that I was actually able to hire him. The only thing I would say that is negative was the fact that my girlfriend was not allowed to call and get information from the lawyers office. They told me it was for security reasons and did not want to reveal anything that was personal or confidential so this pissed off my girlfriend who was helping me pay.