Melody Ridgley Fortunato

I retained Ms.Fortunato on June 3rd 2023 to represent me in my nightmare divorce. I paid her $7,500 retainer fee. During the initial consultation Ms.Fortunato suggested an action plan: #1 file a motion for attorney's fees #2 file a motion to sell the marital home #3 get to the mediation asap and cont...inue to the trial because the opposing party wasn't cooperative. This is what actually Ms. Fortunato and her associates have done: 1) nothing really in the first month. They just cancelled my scheduled mediation on June 20th 2023 and didn't say anything to me. Next mediation was scheduled for Aug 30th but canceled right away (because they remembered Ms. Fortunato's Jiu-Jitsu competition was on the same date). I guess the competition was more important than my divorce 2) My "ASAP" mediation was finally on Oct 26th 2023, but because Ms. Fortunato sent my financial docs to the opposing party only on Oct 25th 2023, the OP refused to attend and discuss the settlement. Ms.Fortunato never admitted the mistake (delay), just said she wasn't required to provide the financials. Interesting, how was she going to discuss the settlement? 3) after 2 months from getting the $7,500 retainer, nothing actually happened and I had to go to her office and ask for work to be done. At that point she finally filed 2 petitions that were discussed with her back in June. Those petitions were really important to me because my ex kicked me out of the marital home (on false domestic violence claims) and I didn't have much money to afford $400/hr in attorney's fees. 4) I needed to see the judge ASAP and was hoping to get an order to sell the marital home (the ex was living there). Ms. Fortunato told me that was something she could do (referred to a particular law). Both motions were scheduled for a hearing on Dec 12 2023. 5) In the beginning of Dec 2023, less than 2 weeks before the hearing, Ms. Fortunato wrote to me and said, she "had a bad feeling about my motions", so she withdrew the motion for attorney's fee 6) On Dec 12 2023, 10 mins(!) before the hearing on the motion to sell the marital home, Ms.Fortunato told me that I had bad chances to get the court's order due to the "new law". Of course, I didn't get the order. The judge declined my petition and referred to a new law (case from March 2023!). Ms. Fortunato knew about that new law and on the same day, in her office gave me the paper with the law and her notes. She didn't do her research before taking my case and was giving a legal advice based on the outdated information. 7) I told Ms. Fortunato that her service was unprofessional and I didn't need it any longer. She withdrew from the case and filed a notice of attorney's lien. She thinks I still owe her money for her "work" 8) Before making this a public matter I wrote to Ms.Fortunato and asked her to refund me my $7,500 retainer fee and withdraw the notice of attorney's lien. She refused but offered her legal services as compensation. 9) I'm filing a complaint with Florida BAR 10) I have proof of every word I wrote here. If you need details - search my divorce case on BrowardClerk.org (Mitchell v Mitchell, filed Aug 8th 2022)