Celia J. Harned

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.

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.

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!

Ceila Harned is the most incompetent, biased, untrustworthy and unprofessional "lawyer" I have ever had the unfortunate displeasure to meet. Ms. Harned was assigned to my case as a CFI to help to reach an accord with my extremely difficult ex. She promised that she would be fair and professional, ho...wever after my experience with her its apparent that she has no idea what those words mean. From the beginning she showed favoritism towards my exes version of events. While she showed him sympathy I was met with aggressive disdain and disapproval. When I was honest with my concerns about that she rudely told me that she couldn't be "bamboozled". After that she was openly hostile during our interactions. She told me to leave the room while speaking to my young children, however I could hear her talking to them. She completely discounted their concerns about whate was occurring with their father, practically calling them liars and then leading them to answer her questions in a more favorable way towards my ex. Afterwards she flat out accused me of telling my children what to say, which I did NOT do. She put that in her report anyway. She constantly refused to answer my phone calls or return emails, but when she did her responses were short and scathing. Meanwhile my ex bragged that he had her "eating out of the palm of his hand". As a "unbiased" lawyer, she showed up to court and hugged my ex and laughed and joked with him. When we remarked how unprofessional that was she tattled to the judge that my side was harassing her. Ceila's report appeared to have been written by a middle school student. There were misspellings, run on sentences and even smiley faces included! She couldn't even get the names of my children correct in her report. It was ridiculous. This woman is a danger to your children. If she is assigned to your case immediately request another person. RUN! She has zero interest in the truth and most importantly she has no interest in your children. She is one of the worst, most dishonest people I have ever met in my life.

I have worked with some very amazing attorneys in the past as well as have quite a number of friends that practice in all different areas of law. I would recommend any and all of the attorneys I have worked with in the past except Ms. Harned. She is too busy for you, always brushes off any question...s, does not follow through or respond to emails or voice messages, she is not thorough, she makes A LOT of mistakes AND submits them in her reports to the court. Ms. Harned is deceptive and will say whatever you want to hear. She is primarily looking out for herself and is spineless and when push comes to shove, as it often does in court, she does NOT fight for what's right, she will give in to what makes her life easier. I was extremely disappointed in her legal ethics and integrity, she is clearly just doing a J.O.B. and unfortunately even that, bare bones doing the work wasn't even done well or accurately. If I did my work at her standards I would have been fired a long time ago.