Melissa A Malouf

She prides herself on being compassionate, understanding and accessible to her clients as two of the most important factors dealing with the practice of family law. However unfortunate, I did not have the opportunity to benefit from these beliefs. Not to say in the least, that the other reviews w...eren't well-deserved, however in my personal experience, the fight for my best interests was a lackluster one. At the tail end of finalizing all matters, I could not determine which client's interest she was fighting for; mine or his. At times I felt pressured and rushed to make decisions that ultimately would affect my livelihood and well-being long after this matter is resolved. She mostly just relayed information and did not attempt, in my opinion, to offer me suggestions, guidance, strategy...NOTHING. She only relayed information she got from the opposing attorney. I was very fluent and clear on my wishes and on every instance I felt they were overlooked and ignored. The final agreement, in which I spent 4.5 hours negotiating on a Saturday, was totally NOT adhered to 10 months later, at her direction. I was very perturbed that I'd spent money and time only for the opposing attorney and ex-spouse to "re-negotiate" the terms. That was a total waste of my time, money and energy. Along with their re-negotiations, I had no choice but to amend my own agreed order, send it to ex-spouse and his counsel to sign and send to my counsel; all because my counsel was unavailable for over a month. The overall response rate declined immensely throughout the duration of my experience. When I needed it the most, I was not given assistance, guidance or suggestions from my attorney. This was one of the hardest, emotionally draining experiences I've had to face, and to feel like I didn't have the legal support backing me and my interests 100% has been very disheartening experience to say the least. I personally don't recommend as a divorce attorney as I had to do a lot of conceding on SEVERAL occasions, based on my own thoughts, logic, wisdom and common sense, due to the lack of guidance. I simply wanted the process over in a suitable amount of time, making myself available at ANY time to take care of matters at hand. My counsel didn't aide in making it prompt and as least stressful as possible. I felt very demeaned when she asked for the balance due in two payments, and I told her that amount did not fit in my monthly budget, and my monthly car payment equated to half of what she wanted me to pay. The words she spoke to me were: "Well that's what happens when you buy these fancy cars!" My car note had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this situation at hand, and to have to audacity to utter such a vile statement, set my emotions off! The comment was unprofessional at the utmost. Ending that conversation, I felt belittled, insulted and humiliated to say the LEAST during this interaction.

The times I talked with Melissa while she was my attorney, she never seemed to know what was going on with my case or the things she told me in our (in which I recorded) initial conversation. We waited until the very end to request the interrogatories from the other party and by that time, they had ...filed a frivolous lawsuit against me, so I basically had to give in to their demands in order for the lawsuit to be dropped, and since I had lost all confidence in my attorney (Malouf) I knew I could not count on her to represent me in that case. Another thing that bothered me about this attorney is that I never once received an itemized statement of the services they provided me each month. I still haven’t received one to this day and our case is closed. I would not recommend this attorney.