Ana Cristina Cruz

Ana came to me highly recommended by another attorney which I truly respect. I hired Mrs. Cruz to finish the last two hours of a child support modification hearing. She initially quoted me $2,500 but the final bill was well over $17,000, although she never actually completed the hearing that she was... hired to complete. During the time that she represented me, she displayed very little basic financial knowledge. She is also very inexperience when it comes to legal maneuvers. She was never able to establish what my ex-wife's income was, but worse yet, she told me that her income wasn't important. This appeared to have been stated in an effort to cover up for her lack of knowledge about financial matters. This was a clear indicator that Ana Cruz was uninformed and uneducated about child support modification cases. She also failed to keep me informed about vital developments in my case. At one point, she failed to inform me and respond to a subpoena. Her delay harmed me. At another point she withheld vital income and assets information that she had in her possession for over six months. When I asked her about this information, five months after my initial request, she stated that her office wasn't able to locate the documents. During the time that she represented me, she also failed to send discovery items to opposing counsel on a timely basis. In several cases, this resulted on opposing counsel asking for and receiving extensions. These extensions prejudiced me. At the last hearing that she attended, she showed up thirty minutes late causing the judge to take it out on me stating that she would penalize me for Mrs. Cruz's tardiness. Again, opposing counsel was given an extension due to Mrs. Cruz's behavior. This extension harmed my case. Mrs. Cruz responded by writing a motion to have the judge recused. When the Judge refused to recuse herself, Ana refiled it with the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals rejected her baseless motion. Needless to say she charged me for all of these useless shenanigans and extensions. In my opinion, at times she appeared to be intimidated by opposing counsel. She rarely challenged him or his allegations, and would remain silent when he spoke over her. I brought this up to her and she stated that her reputation would be tarnished if she stood up to opposing counsel. I was floored when I heard this. Initially, Ana appears very nice and knowledgeable. She is neither. After the Court of Appeals rejected her baseless motion, she decided to withdraw from my case because I challenged her high fees and her weak court demeanor when dealing with opposing counsel. She also refused to release the files that I had given her, unless I paid her excessive bill, although I had already paid her in excess of $10K (remember she quoted me $2,500). She knew that without these files my case would be difficult to finish. There are a lot of better choices out there than Mrs. Cruz. Ana Cruz does not have the experience, knowledge, or expertise to work on this field. By the way, she does take pride in writing lengthy motions, which are for the most part well written, but accomplish very little and cost the client a lot of money. I have had experience with several other attorneys in the past. Ana Cruz is by far the worst experience that I have ever had! She is the least knowledgeable, least responsive, and least trustworthy. I do not recommend her for anything but the most basic legal tasks.