Mary Elizabeth Van Orman

Mary was never prepared in my case. She was running back and forth between courts making excuses. Her employees told me all their clients were mad. She did nothing on my behalf. I'm amazed she still has a license to practice. My first request was to change my maiden name back -- she failed to do ...even that.

I was unable to get a hold of her for almost 2 months. I went to her office downtown and found that she had been locked out for not paying her rent. I found a Woodlands location and went there and was told the same thing. I've dealt with 4 different paralegals during the first 6 months of my case.... She sent a law clerk to represent me at my mediation. She did not show up to my hearing because she was 'out of state, honey!'. I fired her and she refuses to return my file that has the originals of important evidence and photos. I too have filed a grievance, do not expect to recover anything but she should not be practicing anymore. I told the guy at the Woodlands office that I hired her because of her good reviews. He said those were all fake and that she has been doing this to her staff and clients for several years.... Unbelievable!!!

Mary van orman will promise you the moon when she is trying to get money from you. She seldom showed up to court and I had to remind her of our court dates. She has new staff every 6 weeks and I was told she failed to pay many of them then fired them after they realized they were not getting paid and... demanded their salary. When I hired her my divorce went on for one year and she had gone through 9 paralegals. Nothing ever got done. When she did decide to return your emails they were full of misspelled words and always asked for more money. If you did not give it to her she would threaten to fire me as a client. This woman is a piece of work. Don't trust her. She does this regularly. I filed a complaint with the state bar and she is under investigation.

Mary mishandled my "slam dunk" case inappropriately charged me $32,000 and then removed herself from my case when I refused to give her what she had billed me for. $20,000 in, and 8 months later nothing had been resolved due to her own personal life and a few needed reschedules by the court. She re...fused to handle anything given to her upfront and instead would wait until the other side had filed motions, which in turn of course runs your billing up as now you have to go to court..right? Yup. Billing is all wrong. When you dispute the billing she doesn't want to deal with it for months at a time, then wants it handled immediately. If you can't handle it immediately she removes herself from your case. She is constantly turning over her staff as she claims all things mishandled are due to their incompetency. I would show up for court dates and there would be other attorneys there to handle an unapproved reschedule of my case, one was not even a family attorney. One day in court she got into a shouting match with my ex in the hallway. A screaming match to the point that the bailiff was called to separate them,not once but twice. The ultimate mess up? My ex was granted a monetary judgement against me because Mary missed 3 scheduled court dates. One of which I notified her myself of. She filed an appeal to have it removed, but then she never followed through with it. That was the main issue, absolutely no follow through with anything. In the court room their were short glimpses of the amazing attorney that I was told she was, but those glimpses were short and faded very quickly. I have filed a complaint against Mary Van Orman with the Bar. The complaint was accepted and is still in progress as it was elevated to a committee. In the end I had to spend an additional $10,000 to another attorney to rush into my case and get it completed. I did not get what I originally set out to do done as the emergency I reported in the beginning of the case was now over. It had been a year since my case was started. What a circus.