Steven Messner

Steve was hired for a paternity case with my wife and her son. My wife’s ex husband signed the birth certificate. I also hired him for a bogus order of protection which was placed on my self. After taking my retainer he said we can’t win. So he charges me 1800 dollars for “research” no research was d...one, he already knew there was nothing he can do. So then he give me a refund and my wife hands it back him for the paternity case. An experienced family attorney should know statue of limitations on birth certificates regarding the mother and father signing. Not only did he not tell us about statue of limitations but he asked for an additional 5,000 dollars, for what? Absolutely nothing. The final outcome was, the birth certificate stands and my wife’s ex husband is the legal father father of her son, even when we had a paternity test proving my wife’s ex husband wasn’t the father, in fact we had two test done. It was all a big run around when he knew the whole time there was nothing he could argue or fight because of the statue of limitations on the the ex husband signing the birth certificate. He conned my wife and I out of 10,000$. Why wasn’t the statue brought up in the consultation, why did he need more money to continue! When he took all that money he asked where certain documents where and they were in the folder we presented to him in the consultation that he never even bothered to look at because he knew the whole time the case was not going anywhere due to statue of limitations. And of course he is unavailable after he gets paid and the case is done. Hopefully next time he can help a family and tell them the truth before he takes there money. We are not rich, i had to pull some strings to get his retainer and it set my wife and me way back. Steve didn’t care, easy money for him. Why tell his potential client the truth when he doesn’t have to do any work and collect a 5 figure check and have his paralegal file all the appearances the same days he is already in court! The site wouldn’t let me leave no stars. He doesn’t deserve even a half of star!

I feel that Steven failed as a professional. He should have behaved like less of a psychologist and a know-it-all, and he should have asked me more pointed questions to get to the bottom of the legal aspects of my situation. He gave me 3 pieces of bad/ erroneous advice. I called and confronted him... about my experience after taking his advice. He verbally told me he would refund half my money, and when I asked for it later, he was not true to his word. As a professional myself, if I don't have experience with something, I don't advise my clients as though I do. From both a business and legal advice perspective, I would absolutely never recommend this gentleman to anyone.