Celia J. Harned

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.

Previously I was assigned Ms. Harned to my case and I had many of the issues and/or complaints that others have cited. She did not seem to care about me as a father figure, that meaning, and I quote, "I will never approve you to see your child unsupervised," This came after a ten month stent of sup...ervised visitations that were nothing but positive. Here is my concern, my case has now been delayed over two years and the court has once again remanded me back to Ms. Harned AGAIN!!! Of course I protested, but was denied. I even stated to the court all the terrible reviews that were posted, and I had these complaints before I read the reviews. I may not be the smartest person in the world, but when I see first hand the incompetence and the "continuing" pattern posted online, I ask, how is this person slipping through the cracks with our legal system and being allowed to continue to practice within our judicial system. Unfortunately I have to deal with her yet again and pay her. This time I am going in with back up with all these posts in hope to get her removed from my case. I agree with everyone else that has said to get a different attorney!

I'll be honest, when Ms. Harned was assigned to our case I saw the bad review and was concerned. Yes she's overworked and sometimes details or typos happen - BUT she CARES about understanding the family dynamics and about doing what's best for the kids. She was very thorough and listened carefully ...to all sides and looked at all the documentation as well. Things were extremely high conflict and ugly but she maintained a pragmatic approach that was very helpful. I appreciate that she didn't make "assumptions" but rather took the time to learn the background and talk to both parties repeatedly to get a real understanding of things. While the outcome of my case wasn't ideal from my perspective, Ms. Harned was extremely thorough and fair and reasonable.