Melissa Faye Benson

Let me start by describing the situation. It was very important to me to find an attorney that specifically had experience in highly contested cases, as my ex is a high conflict person with borderline personality disorder. Additionally, from what I had studied, read, and discussed with other father’s... that had gone through what I was, the Family Court system is considerably hostile towards fathers/ men. I knew my children and I were in danger from both parental alienation and reputational/ financial ruin, and the odds were stacked against us. I had previously hired another very reputable attorney, unfortunately she did not prioritize my family’s interest, placed us in uncertainty with potentially vulnerable outcomes, and began working against me as a client. It was as if I was paying for a second attorney for my ex. I parted ways with that attorney and hired the next attorney at Melissa’s practice. He did good work but litigation extended months longer than it should have and I just wanted to go to trial and play the odds as we were going nowhere with my ex. I just wanted to end this after almost two years of this, and move on with life with my children. In comes my savior, Melissa Benson. With TWO weeks’ notice prior to trial, my lawyer had quit the practice and my case was assigned to Melissa. The situation was as worse-case scenario as it gets for a dad: hostile Family Law Court, contentious ex, brand new lawyer with two weeks to put together a defense from two years’ worth of exhaustive litigation. I was frustrated and fearful as my life with my children was now in very real jeopardy. After 45 minutes of talking with her on our first consult, I was taken aback (in a great way). Over the coming days, as court drew closer, every bit of doubt, anxiety, and fear went away. In place, for the first time in almost two years I felt confident, reassured, and even more: hopeful. Melissa has an incredible mind and talking with her and working with her just constantly reinforced that my kids and I were in safe hands. She is professional, sincere, and cuts the BS to get to what’s important, what she needs from you, and focuses on the best outcome for you. She doesn’t pander to you, and keeps things very transparent and realistic. I don’t know how she did it, but she familiarized herself with two years’ worth of litigation inside of 10 days, and spoke to me about things as if she had been the attorney the entire time. She is remarkably talented and I can’t say enough how impressed I was. Then the big day came. Watching Melissa work was a thing of beauty. As a professional myself, I appreciate watching a person work and do what they do best. Melissa completely dominated in that courtroom. It was unreal. Watching opposing counsel get frustrated, my ex getting visibly upset at getting called out, and the judge showing real signs of genuine understanding, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In the end, statistically 4 out of 5 times the father loses custody, and I am happy to say I was not one of those fathers. That alone was the only real thing that mattered to me. I could replace money, I can’t replace time with my children. My case was certainly an exception by every measure according to the statistics, and I couldn’t be more blessed. I know Melissa was the reason my case was an exception. As with any dad who’s been through the Family Court, you always lose, it’s just a matter of how much. So, while I didn’t get out unscathed, considering what should have happened given the odds, I will happily accept it. At the end of the day, Melissa was amazing, a fighter for fathers out there, and I cannot recommend her more to anyone out there.

Melissa is extremely intelligent & professional. She took on my divorce/custody case & to say the least it was ugly & complex. She made sure as a man I had a voice in this process & nothing would be dictated by my now x-wife. We spent hours preparing for trial & it paid off. Thank God for her. I'm am...azed at her insight in handling legal issues & grateful for her aggressive approach. I highly recommend her to anyone needing law representation.

Where do I even begin? Melissa is so devoted and goes above and beyond to thoroughly know you your case and everything that encompasses. She was there to help support me during the difficult and stressful times, offering knowledge and advice to help me navigate my difficult trial. She fought so hard... for me through every step and ended up securing my children's safe future moving forward. I cannot say enough amazing things about Melissa... her professionalism, legal knowledge, kindness, honesty, and devotion far surpasses what I could have ever anticipated. Hands down best lawyer I have ever worked with!!!! I would give her 100 stars if I could :)

Prior to using Melissa Benson what I was being offered was going to be the following. 1. $360 a month to her in child support payments. 2. Over the course of the year I would go from 15 to 20 hours a week with my kid up to 50/50 as long as I never got any notification of any type on a software t...o monitor my porn usage but if I ever got any notification, I would have to go back to 15-20 hrs. a week. 3. She would make legal decision-making choices in the best interest of our son 1. What I got was $100 a month in child support payments to her. 2. 50-50 custody with a week on a week off effective immediately. (The porn thing got entirely thrown out) 3. I got equal legal decision making When we got to court the judge threw out basically all of our evidence because I did not submit it in time. This was at no-fault to my attorney as I said I waited until the last possible minute to hire her because I was trying to work things out with my ex for my kid’s best interest And because of that I did not submit the information in time. Fortunately, my attorney was very good, and she remembered all of the major points of the evidence we were going to turn in, so she basically asked all the questions when I was on the stand so that the information still got to be heard before the judge. The highlight of my time on the stand was when my attorney showed me a picture, but I didn’t know she had of me holding my child during Christmas. Upon receiving that photo, I began to immediately cry, and it became very visible to everyone in court how much I loved my son along with how much I have been enduring past 2 1/2 years of relocating to the city he lived in so I could be an available dad for him. I had witnesses who came with me, and everyone said that from that moment on the judge’s attitude towards me has shifted as beforehand she looked at me with kind of disgust as if I was the bad guy but when she saw how I felt about my son her attitude changed. I was grateful that my attorney also coached me on what to say and what not to say. Let me be clear she didn’t tell me exactly what to say or what not to say but she instructed me on how to handle myself in court which was to never talk over the judge, to always speak of things that I did or didn’t do because I cared about what was in the best interest of my son, and to always be brief with what was going on or is she called it bottom line up front. When it was all said and done the court awarded me 50-50 custody effective immediately where I would have my son for a week. The court was really impressed that I had done over 80 hours of parenting education classes between the time I learned about being a dad and the court date and then I had done a lot of things to try and get involved with other single parents or co parents. I did this This because my attorney suggested It. I’m glad she suggested this, I’m glad I did it, Because the court was very impressed with that. Prior to going to court I was sending my ex about 200 bucks a month but after court they said I had already overpaid what was a reasonable amount of child support based upon our income levels and then it would not owe her any arrears and that I would only have to pay her 100 dollars a month going forward. Lastly, I get to make decisions for the best interest of my child and neither of us can come to a conclusion with what is in the kid’s best interest, we would have to consult each other. To say it bluntly every area that mattered when it came to going to court and what I wanted I got. I wish I would not have had to hire an attorney because Of how else that money could’ve been used, but without question I’m grateful that I did and more importantly that it was Melissa Benson!