Mary Elizabeth Van Orman

Mary gets the job done. Understand though--Mary is very busy. Mary may not get back to you right away. Mary is expensive. Mary will tell you if what you are looking for is feasible or even in the best interest of your children. She pulls no punches to you or the opposition. I like that. The bes...t part of working with Mary though is watching all the other attorneys (mediation or wherever) kiss up to her because they want to stay on her good side. Seriously. And every one of them at some point pulled me aside and congratulated me on hiring the best. I will reiterate one more time. She will tell you and fight for what is in the best interest of your children.

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.

My family has utilized Mary Van Orman's expertise in the matter of amending child custody agreements and having previous arrangements reversed in the best interest of my grandchildren. She is brilliant in her field, aggressive when needed and always assertive. We found her to be caring and forthrig...ht. She arranged mediation for us that helped us to avoid a trial but gave a positive outcome for my grandchildren. We have consulted with her many times before the case on divorce, child custody, child abuse and neglect. CPS had been notified but it wasn't until Mary got involved that things started to change for the better. We have since continued to confer with her matters that involve visitation with the other parent. I would recommend Mary Van Orman and have done so. Our relationship with Mary Van Orman as an attorney or consultant has been ongoing for approximately 20 years. I wouldn't hesitate to retain her again. Thank you, a very grateful grandmother.

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.

This lawyer treated me great throughout my child custody suit and had me thinking and firmly believing we had it in the bad and nothing to worry about. My ex made some awful claims about me that were PROVEN WRONG! On mediation day, when I refused to give him several extra days out if the month told m...e I should give it to him because we can't go to court. I asked why not and she said "Because you will lose!" I said that I was a great mother and she told me I wasn't and accused me of the things my ex lied about. She's very UNTRUSTWORTHY!!