Zachary Branca Smith

Zachary Smith

I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way. For confidentiality reasons, I can not and will not get in to details surrounding this case, however, I am aware of what prior client this is and what the circumstances were. Each divorce and custody situation is different, and I'm happy to hear that you were able to increase your parenting time down the road. However, at the time I represented this client there was an Order for Protection for Domestic Violence in place, which I successfully had dismissed, but which still very much impacted the ability to share parenting time. I'll note that absent my efforts to have the OFP dismissed, he would have had zero chance down the road to achieve equal parenting time. Sometimes, while it is not possible to have an ideal outcome in the short run, you need to set yourself up for success in the long run, which is exactly what happened here. With regards to "not returning phone calls", the client was upset that I did not call back immediately on Christmas eve. I called back 12/26 as soon as my office was open. This client did not "fire" me, they did not make any payments towards their account and representation was terminated, as evidenced by the fact that they had their wages garnished. In almost 10 years of representing clients, I have had to garnish the wages of exactly 2 people. This client refused to understand that part of any good lawyer's strategy is to know when to fight and to know when to negotiate. Blindly fighting for equal temporary parenting time days after an arrest for domestic violence would be counterproductive, not to mention a waste of the client's funds. This client wished to aggressively litigate every single detail while not paying anything towards the cost of doing so, and paying no attention to the long term outlook of the case. I understand that divorce is a stressful time, but frankly, this client was nothing more than a bully and a jerk to deal with. He has attempted to smear my name and reputation through the legal system and has gotten absolutely nowhere (the conciliation court judge explicitly noted that I provided excellent representation at a more than fair cost, especially in getting an OFP dismissed outright), so now he is resorting to smearing me over the internet. If there was an AVVO for rating clients, I would give him zero out of zero stars.