Pamela Ann Vandel

Initially told me this was going to be a slam dunk, but when we got to court she just sat there. Presented no evidence, asked no questions. Just sat there with her arms crossed. She doesn't return calls, and when and if one is able to contact her in the office, she is rude and terse. Told me this sho...uldn't cost over $3000, but after more than $6000 later, we weren't any further along than when we started. I finally fired her and started over with a new attorney.

She said, "Your case will be easy, no doubt about that! It should not take more than $4,500 and that includes the retainer of $3,000." A $3,000 up front retainer fee, over $8,000 in payments total and she DROPPED my case a month before trial because I supposedly owed her money. After reviewing my inv...oice from her, she double charged my mediation session that she sent another attorney from her office to do "so it would be cheaper". $800 over charged. If she had not over charged me I didn't owe her any money, she owed me time. When I brought it to her attention, she was rather defensive and asked me to let her know if there were any other wrong charges on my account. I told her she already knows that answer and if she didn't want a law suit she had better correct. Then I get a statement in the mail that after the corrections had been made I still owe her $500 for "revising the invoice". So now she is trying to charge me over $500 for having to take the time to correct her own fraud!!!!! Needless to say, she will never she it. She is also very judgement. Nice to your face and then BOOM, turn your head and you are just as bad as the one she is supposed to be defending you against. I was actually relieved when she withdrew from case, it gave me a chance to look at back at all of it, hire another attorney that got the job done with less than $2,000!!! What does that tell ya?!!!!?

Pam lost $7,500.00 in payments we paid to her. She double charged us for mileage, misadded time to her financial benefit and changed statements after she sent them out to demand more money. Any time we had a credit balance on our statement she'd claim there were errors in order to eat up the credit b...alance and make it so we owed her. She provided incorrect court dates. Failed to attend a mediation hearing due to serious illness but her office did nothing to contact us about it. We had to contact her office to find out why she was a no show. She was VERY passive and just sits there and doesn't say anything in trial court. AND she has horrible hearing loss and can't hear testimony in corut. She didn't ask any follow up questions or question witnesses to help our case. We would have done better to represent ourselves. She didn't research or have us research judgments that would have proven the other party was lying on the stand. She accused us of only going to court because of money. Pam acted like we were the bad guys eventhough we had proof the mother was writing pornography with photos on Facebook that showed up on the childs Facebook page. The mother discussed my 13 year old childs menstrual cycle on facebook . The mother allowed her friends to call my 13 yr old daughter a b!*ch on facebook and accuse my daughter of having STD's . On the stand the mother said my 13 year old daughter thought it was funny. Pam didn't ask questions to cooborrate other witness testimony. We had proof the mother and husband were having drug parties and the husband was charged with 2 counts of armed with intent , and a count of arson all pending. But at trial she focused on an issue that we didn't have documented proof of. Pam was also stunned that the other party lied on the stand. She has no idea on how to present social media evidence and doesn't seem to want to bother with it. After the outcome she accused me of being bitter about the case. Losing a case is never ideal. But my sole bitterness was her unprofessional and passive conduct, lack of initiative and borderline fraudulent client billing and payment statements. She also said our case would not pass the 20,000 mark and by the end we paid 30,000 to her. And she urged us to take a settlement deal that created a huge payday for the drug addict, porn writing deadbeat of a mother. It seemed that she was truly representing the interest of the opposing party instead of us. She did the minimal amount to get by and fleeces her clients for everything they have. She also would make a payment arrangement and then increase the payment amounts or demand immediate payment and accused us of being late and threatened small claims eventhough she was changing the agreement she had with us. We paid her everything she asked for. We were idiots. She is VERY hostile if you question her statements or call her out on not following her own contract or arrangements made! If you want to lose your case and lose all your money, hire her. If you want a chance to win a case hire anyone else. I am reporting her conduct and fraudulent billing statements to the state bar association.

She represented us in a custody issue. We had a teen (diagnosed with oppositional defiant behavior) who was able to convince DHS that he needed to be made a CINA (Child In Need Of Assistance) . DHS made the child seem like a victim when in fact he was causing great disruption in the home. This a...ttorney did not even fight on our behalf. She was very passive and gave minimal advice. She allowed very damaging subjective lies to be stated about our character in court, and she did nothing to defend us. I would never recommend her to anyone. We would have done better to represent ourselves.