Brian L. Mares

The other reviews are very accurate except the five star one, which was probably made up. My divorce took four years and cost me over $50k. Brian assured me that my ex would be responsible for all attorney fees. When it came time for payment, he told me I’d just have to “eat it”. When I asked him for... itemized billing statements he refused to provide them, and filed a motion against me for payment. He was never prepared, and rarely listened to me, or returned my calls. I feel sorry for his assistant, because she has to do most of his work. Brian ended up signing the final court order without my permission. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. He just doesn’t care! Stay away from him if you know what’s good for you!

Mr. Mares started out very interested in taking my divorce case, however, after a few weeks there was little to no contact from him. I would call and email, but he would never return my correspondences. When it got close to the court date, he would ask to meet 15 minutes before the hearing, and he ha...d to ask me questions about what was going on. I had to make copies of my documentation to give to him and I even had to compile the spreadsheets and documentation to give to him. I filed for a change of motion for child support, and when we went to court over it, he had the wrong date which cost me two months of additional child support that I had to pay. Mr. Mares has issues with putting closure to cases. My case went on for over a year when it should have been done in a couple months. I would not recommend this attorney to anyone who is interested in winning their case.

I was new to the area & needed a good attorney to handle my divorce. I called nearly a dozen firms in an attempt to not only get an approximate cost, but more importantly, to get a feel for the attorney. When I called Steinhilber, Swanson & Mares, Brian took the time to talk to explain the entire p...rocess to me, which earned him brownie points right off the bat in my book. My opinion is that if you can't be bothered to talk to me as a prospective client, then you most likely won't have time for me if I become a client. Being that I was new to the area and had no referrals to go off of, my decision of which attorney to go with was based primarily off of the initial phone call to the firm. The 10 minutes Brian took out of his day to talk to me awarded him my case despite the fact that he was slightly more expensive than some of his competition. I’m a firm believer in “You get what you pay for”. After that, I had an initial consultation in person with Brian during which he, again, explained the process to me in great detail. My situation was complicated by the fact that I had just moved to WI from my home state and my ex still lived in that home state. Adding to the complexity was a restraining order that I recently had to get against my ex; a copy of which Brian had already retrieved from court records and reviewed prior to my coming in that day! Right from the start, I felt that Brian was very knowledgeable & experienced which was reflected in how thorough he was with my case. He was great at returning phone calls if I had a question, and he made sure I understood everything that was going on at all times. When it came time to prepare the Marital Settlement Agreement, I expressed to Brian that I was comfortable with taking on half the marital debt, however he suggested that we propose for my ex to pay most of the debt being that I’d left him with nearly all the assets to offset that debt. He explained that the worst thing that could happen is that my ex won’t sign and then we can negotiate the debt differently. To my surprise, my ex signed it! Brian’s suggestion saved me from paying approximately $12,000.00 (what would’ve been my half) for vehicles I left in my ex’s possession. I truly believe that Brian had my best interest in mind and worked hard to make sure I didn’t get screwed over in the divorce. I give Brian the highest recommendation possible to anyone needing an attorney. I know if I ever need legal representation in the future, I can count on him.

First of all, if you want to get ANYTHING done, you have to go through someone else (i.e. his assistant). Even then, don't expect them to get the date of your divorce right (Yes, they messed up my ACTUAL court date). They sent someone to serve my partner the paperwork and because they spelled the nam...e of his street wrong (which I had already given them...correctly I might add), so the paperwork was delayed while they fixed their problem. In the end, I got nothing out of the divorce, despite the fact that my partner was making 4 times the amount of money I was. Why? Because Brian really doesn't care. He won't give you the time of day. As long as he's getting his money, he's happy. Who cares that I will be struggling for years financially because of this. Stay away from Brian. He's simply a headache.