Michael T Bringhurst

You only know how good your divorce papers are after you are divorced and the papers are directing parents to work together. I hired Mike and we drew up papers and went to mediaton. My divorce decree has been back to court three times in 2 years, all the while my X has moved from Vegas to Californi...a and then back to Utah. While my X has broken our decree many times it costs thousands to accuse and prove it. Once proven nothing changes because the kids are not in danger or being harmed. Mean while items that Mike consulted me to agree to put me at a huge disadvantaged position as a parent. While I have 50/50 physical and legal custody specific words that her more experienced attorney used makes it more like 90/10. Just a few of the major issues that specific words put us at a huge disadvantage are; 1: I’ve been responsible for all transportation of he children. (Be careful, at one place in my decree it says all travel should be shared other places in the decree says I am responsible. Ultimately I have been the one responsible) 2. I can never take the kids out of school early or keep them home on any circumstances, while my X takes them out when ever she wants. 3. First right of refusal to get your kids instead of daycare has requirements that are excessive, costly and inconvenient. 4. The custodial parent clause is a very small sentence that gets in the way of everything being equal. “When the parties cannot agree the custodial parent will have the final say” Guess what that means, the custodial parent makes the decisions on everything with out consulting you ever. This little sentence invalidates 23 pages of the decree that we spent thousands to come up with. I liked Mike as a person but severely regret hiring him as my attorney. Be careful, the legal system around divorce in Utah is twisted. The only people who win are lawyers, mediators, commissioners and judges that keep their jobs. If your lawyer is not great and leaves holes in your divorce decree plan on going back to court. Getting a decree inforced or changed is as hard and costly as the decree itself.

I hate to leave a negative review for anyone, but my experience with Mike Bringhurst was so awful that I feel inclined to warn people before they go through what I did. When I first reached out to Mike for my divorce, he was on top of his game. Quick to respond, persistent, and seemed eager to help. ...Even agreed over the phone on a lower retainer as I was financially strapped with my divorce. After my consult, he changed the retainer amount to a higher dollar than agreed upon. I ended up paying anyway to get my divorce going. Once I gave him the check - crickets. He had all my paperwork, money, info, etc in February and told me he could get my wife served within 24-48 hours. SHE WASN'T SERVED UNTIL MAY 30TH!!! When her lawyer responded to the petition for divorce, it was a proposal for my wife to have Sole Legal Custody of my daughter. Mike didn't explain to me what that meant (FYI - DO NOT AGREE TO THAT CUSTODY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE). I clearly explained to Mike that I wanted joint custody (now I know this is called Joint Legal) yet he was completely fine in knowing I was getting screwed over and would ultimately be sacrificing time and legal rights to my daughter. It took him days to respond to my calls or emails, and when he did they were short and uninformative. When I notified him I would be changing lawyers, I asked him for a printed receipt of what work had been done against my retainer (which wasn't much) and he threatened me saying "there was so much work done" it would result in me owing him more money. NOT POSSIBLE. I now am happily divorced after moving to a different attorney. My new attorney got everything re-filed, mediated, finalized, signed sealed delivered (with EVERYTHING I asked for, including Joint Legal Custody of my daughter) for over $600 less than what I put on retainer with Bringhurst - and in less than 3 months time. Mike didn't even serve my (now) ex with papers in that amount of time...Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere before meeting with him.