Joseph S. Neterval

My husband & I ( mostly my husband ) worked with Joe for 10 months regarding a custody issue. Although Joe made us scratch our heads at times and he offended me a couple of times with his attitude towards me ( the wife of his client who didn't do anything wrong and who is paying him )... In the en...d, Joe hit a homerun for my husband and we got everything we requested. He was fairly prompt with communication via email and phone calls. Straight & to the point.

I am a struggling single mother. I was left by my boyfriend almost 5 months ago because I was having health complications and it affected me mentally, I was having a hard time coping. I set out to find a job so I could find a lawyer I could afford, as my ex has a lawyer, who is seemingly just out... to mess up someones life even if it's not what's good for the children involved. I found Joe through nonprofit legal services and I thought thank God. I noticed right away that he was short with you and arrogant. I didn't feel that he looked into my case, I felt that he drew conclusions of his own off assumptions. He said horrible things to me regarding my baby who I'm trying to get joint custody of. He told me "I should've had an abortion" and that "I shouldn't have had sex with a guy that was going to screw me over." How is a person to know what the future holds? Especially when your partner seems like they'll always have your back? I felt that Joe was not on my side and he spoke to me like I was scum. He told me there is no way I would win my case and he told me I shouldn't have had sex with my ex about 15 different times. I ended up firing him and will be hiring a real lawyer. Try any other means of hiring an attorney before you settle with this unprofessional, arrogant "attorney."

Is terrible mood is only for manipulation you to agree what "he" wants, and what "he" wants is have good image with others attorneys. He doesn't care about you case and your needs or even what is justice for the case. He doesn't fight for you and your child. My daughter was negligent by fathers and h...is parents, like do not put my daughter to take shower and she came to home with terrible rash, discharged and have to take antibiotics, do not gave the medication the doctor prescribed, do not study with her homework, do not gave milk etc... and Joe said in the first interview he do not believe in me. He said when I mention the credit Cards my ex-husband used in my name, he said: " I don't care about your Credit Card, this is not myproblem". Have one Court order, by the commissioner to the father paid for insurance of the car, and when I had money to pay 250 a hour for attorney, she made he paid, but when I do not have money Joe and his attorney said: " I can't make he pay the bill". Promising to bring this up in the court, and past more then 6 months and do not did, and I had car accident, where I was in Green Light and the man was in Red Light, and I mention that with Joe, and he said he only take case if they sue me, and this happened and when this happened he said he doesn't asked how the accident happened, who was right. He don't fight for me, instead he said I am not a victim, and said for me to sale what I have to pay the bills. I have to pay the central air of my ex-husbands house and the Credit Card, and having difficult time in Court with the car accident, where I lose, because do not have a attorney. Th true is I do not have attorney, when Nerteval was my attorney. The attorney work for him, abandon the case, because I do not paid the fee, was around 150 dollar and do not told me about one court date. When I found a nice job, but I want save money, I call them and he make appointment in the lunch room of the Court house, and do not said for me the amount he going to charge, and I was thinking was the same price I did: 25 dollar a hour, instead he charge 75 dollar a hour, but do not told me nothing and said : sign, sign, sign, and I sign. He worked one month and cost 1500 for the intake, the bill I had before and I end up with bill 150 dollar. And he said to me: "After the divorce finished I don't want see your face". I want the custudy with my daughter and instead he fight for me, he treat me: " If you not agree with share custudy, you going to loose" I asked:"Why" He answered" I am your lowyer". (Rude) Every answer was in tone laud and rude. I was thinking in why I had him, maybe, because I had one husband abuse and the abuse continuing where they used my daughter, and I was thinking, I develop one personality where I accept being abused, and that is the reason why I had him. The divorce process is difficult and with him as your attorney, going to be worse. I do not recommendation for any case, like family and or car accident.

From the get-go, "Joe" seemed very exasperated even when he answered our initial phone call. Looking back, we should have trusted our gut and moved on (we would have gone with another of the lower income options first but our opposing party was already using them). Long story short, my husband h...ad been in a custody battle with his ex-wife for the last year and a half and the scales had been tipping in his favor for some time. Being the court-ordered third party contact between my husband and his ex-wife, I was my husband's secretary for all intents and purposes, always having kept things documented and seeking out evidence at any opportunity. When we were looking for a new attorney, we spoke with Joe, giving him our financial basics first of course (which was fine since fees are base on income). It took a few weeks of phone calls back and forth but things seemed promising. He said he would just have to speak with my husband to make the official agreement since it was my husband's name on the case. They spoke, made the agreement, and we authorized a payment of $500.00. Even though we weren't thrilled with Joe's repertoire, we figured maybe he was just a hard ball attorney, no worries... ...until there were. When he called for the second phone consult with my husband, he completely disrespected him, his own client at this point. The conversation started out fine but it seemed like Joe had done some very basic research of our case, things anyone could find on CCAP, and jumped to conclusions based on that information. Little did he know, the details of our case were fairly unique; the likelihood of my husband taking custody from his ex-wife was promising. When Joe asked my husband about a detail of his case, my husband was not sure so he asked Joe to speak with me to clarify (as I mentioned, I am basically the record-keeper). Joe responded saying in a very firm and combative tone, "I don't want to talk to your wife, I want to talk to you; you are the boss here, not her." O-kay...clearly Joe had no idea how instrumental I actually was to this case. And instead of having an even remotely open mind and asking the specifics or acting on my husband's (his client's) wishes to speak with me, he wrote it off as just an over-bearing wife. My husband wanted to hang up the phone then and there but I urged him to stay on a little longer. Turns out he only needed two more minutes until Joe insulted him again. Again, Joe neglected to learn the actual details of my husband's unique case. While he should have acknowledged my husband having temporary custody of his kids for over a year, Joe chose to see the glass half-empty if you will, focusing on how courts are more lenient to women, etc. and he literally asked my husband, "Are you a politican? Are you the governor?..." in a rant in which he basically communicated to my husband that he was not going to win his case. The truth is, my husband did win, without the help of Joe Neterval. A few days ago, we had our final court date regarding the custody of my stepsons. The final order of the court states that my husband will continue to have sole legal custody and primary placement of the kids and his ex-wife will have placement at reasonable times, upon reasonable notice. We thank God that we did follow our gut, even if it was better late than never. At the time, we agreed, we'd rather go on pro se (with no attorney) than to have someone representing us that we didn't trust. While we wish no ill will on Joe Neterval, we do want to alert others to his practices. Remember, your attorney works for you, not the other way around. Make lots of phone calls and talk to people, you never know who or what you will come across. Best of luck.