Cynthia Hooks Umstead

She took our money and she refused to reply back and when I went to the office they would lie and say she isn’t there and she was looking at the camera right she is a horrible terrible she doesn’t follow threw with any of her commitments she never went to see the person that she was hired to represen...t and she told lies and ask for money stole our money she is very very unprofessional and she a poor legal representation… He

Ms. Umstead was assigned as my court appointed attorney several years ago on a upocs case. She and her staff answered all my and my parents questions in a timely and thorough manner. This was a very frightening and confusing time for myself and my family and Cynthia and her staff did everything pos...sible to put our minds at ease. Through her good advice i managed to go through a deferred prosecution program and kept the felony from affecting my permanent record.

Hired this lawyer to represent me and once she received my money there was little communication and it just got to the point where she would not respond to any of my calls or messages at all. My case never got representation through her and I could never get in touch with her nor get her to respo...nd back to me. And she did not refund any of my money back. In my opinion just plain bad business practice.

She gave terrible advice to plea guilty and stated it was because she would appeal due to the court system however apparently there is a very strict time frame to appeal and when your lawyer becomes unresponsive and won’t return your calls your left not knowing what to do. Only yesterday after callin...g another attorney did we find that my husband was given “terrible advise” per that attorneys statement as well as we were screwed because the appeal wasn’t filed. Better yet she also didn’t tell us other details of the case that meant he would get put in jail if he didn’t do certain things. Who knew!! She wouldn’t communicate at all! Not recommended. She took our money for the appeal and didn’t even file it. We want our money back for this but she won’t even answer the phone so we can ask for it. Don’t hire her!