Celia J. Harned

Ms. Harned is a completely biased CFI who will not rely on recent psychological studies...or any studies. Just ask her. Celia: "The studies show [my parenting plan] is in the best interests of the child." Me: "What studies are you referring to?" Celia: "The studies show this." Me: "Well, can... you name a few?" Celia: "I don't have time to list all of the studies; you'll have to look them up." It is telling when someone practicing for as long as she has been but can't name a single study to back up anything. Her CFI report was completely biased. She shaped facts by leaving out details that would be damning to the other party. I also can confirm spelling mistakes and carelessness in obtaining facts. I live outside of Colorado and wanted a live virtual interview, which was denied. I still sent videos; I asked obvious questions about the videos to test whether she actually watched them. Nope. Now I have a Court Order that adopted her "report" almost verbatim.

Celia was the CFI for my grand daughter's case that involved Celia having to conduct telephone interviews with out of state family members. She spent more time disclosing her opinions than she did asking intentional, information gathering questions pertinent to the case. It was clear from my "inte...rview" that she had already determined what her recommendations would be. These recommendations were based on nothing more than her own biased impressions without any supporting professional insight or facts. She is a poor interviewer with little to no communication skills. I am a Clinical Social Worker with experience in the child welfare system. I supported involving a CFI because in theory it is suppose to provide an objective, informed viewpoint of what is in the best interest of the child. Being from out of state, I assumed the CFI would be an attorney with additional education and training since these can be emotionally charged situations with a lot at stake for entire families. I was extremely disappointed and would caution any family to circumvent this process at any cost. Even the experience of dealing with Celia was unpleasant and left me feeling mislead and manipulated.

I would never recommend Celia as a CFI to anyone she is unfair and I’m bias she does not recommend wants the best for people and situations and include both sets of parents which should be she lets the children control more of the decision making and adults with adults around by the children and nowa...days he could see why our children or our control because they are not disciplined and they do not respect adults and this is a woman that does not do any guidance for anyone or help out anyone in any situation

This women did an awful investigation in our case. She would not look at my info which was extensive. She was very one sided and reported falsely on our case. In my opinion she is a con women. She ignored sexually inappropriate behavior on the fathers side along with domestic violence. She would not ...even hear me speak amd when i tried to record the conversation she stopped the interview. This woman should not be in this position. She placed my child with a man who had 3 dependency and neglect convictions.

Celia Harned was assigned on my family court case. If I can provide any advice, please attempt to work things out with an ex without the court's intervention. Whenever the legal system has to step in to decide what's best for your child, it is an unfit circumstance. It is essentially impossible. W...ith that said, if you do have to involve the courts, then you and your ex definitely need to agree on a Child Family Investigator (CFI) from a list you can request from the court or do an online search. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT be defaulted or let the Courts assign you this person, Celia Harned! I have worked with many attorneys on various issues and have never met one as incompetent as this "attorney". There was no thorough investigation but rather a very lazy attempt done with haste. Even when details were provided in writing from other entities to Celia Harned, she could not articulate or summarize them in the report for the court?!? Her final report was as if a grade school child had written it. I will also add the courts was not unfavorable in its decision based on the facts toward me, however, it did require going beyond Celia Harned's brief. Celia Harned's reporting was subjective on my behalf and being the honest person I am, I even spoke up in Court on my ex's behalf as her reports made him out to be the "bad" parent. This is an integrity issue and I could never again work with such a dishonest and unscrupulous and "attorney". She is the dregs of legal representation! I did some research on Celia Harned as an attorney. Celia Harned is a Court appointed attorney who receives all her clients from the Court. This means she gets ALL of her assignments from the Family Courts and do not have any private practice clients. She regularly works with lower income or uneducated clients and hence she biases reporting against who she subjectively chooses. There is no legal recourse because either party aren't financially able to do so. Lastly, the maximum a CFI, by recent law, can make for family investigations is $2000 ($1000 from each party). At the time Celia Harned was assigned to my family court case, she was demanding additional monies from me until I found this fees cap online. Again, this "attorney" practices are unscrupulous and legally liable with anyone who is willing to pursue. I took the time to write this because I want to help those who are in a family struggle so that both parties can hopefully work things out. If you leave your children in the hands of the Courts or much, much worse in the hands of Celia Harned, you will possibly regret it.