Nicole Michelle Stednitz

I had a very bad experience with Nicole Stednitz. She misrepresented my legal situation in order to get my business. After receiving a favorable order prior to having met her, she told me to file for a trial that took away my favorable orders, costing over $16,000 when she promised it would be under ...$2500 and which I later found out should never have been filed. She also charged hundreds for driving to the courthouse. For example, for one 15-minute hearing she arrived both late and unprepared to, she charged 4.1 hours. In small claims court where she sued to recover all of her inflated billing, she argued the 4.1 hours included her travel time and didn’t dispute the hearing itself took 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the judge awarded her the full amount. I’ve had other family law attorneys and was not prepared for a large percentage of attorney fees to go to traveling as none of my other attorneys charged for their travel, let alone more than the hearing itself. Also, each email costs 20% of her billable hour, even if it is one word. One email I sent had an attachment for which she charged hundreds of dollars for reviewing even though she didn’t seem to be familiar with what I had emailed her. Between emails and transportation, my retainer drained quickly each month and needed replenishing, without seeing any real progress in my case. I disputed her overcharges, didn’t hear from her for over three years until she suddenly sued me in small claims court charging thousands in interest the judge threw out but unfortunately, she got away with a lot I dispute is owed to her. She didn’t seem to care about me or my child and situation, but only about billing unreasonably. I personally regret hiring her and the bad outcome her representation resulted in.

I cannot thank Nicole enough for what she and Stuart have done for my family. They both fought for me and my child. Nicole definitely went above and beyond. She made sure I was heard and made sure I got what I wanted and my child needed. My motion wasn’t an easy case. Thank you Nicole for my child’...s happiness.

This lawyer just wasted our time We were referred to her by a family friend. 2 weeks out for an appt fine we wait. My father in law sees her for a free consult she requests we get the child support payment history we do that within a couple of days and we call her office and Her front staff Claudia... says we need to highlight all the irregularities and I tell her it’s a lot of pages to highlight and offered to put it into an excel sheet for her and email it she says that’s fine. That was sent 2/12/2019 and it is now 3/04/2019 I left 2 VM never heard back from anyone until an email today from Nicole that requested the accounting for child support services? I call her office to see what that is well according to her is the paperwork from child services and she needed the actual papers from child support services Scanned in and sent to her and that’s fine but why not say that since 2/12 when I contacted her and as I explained that to her she said to me she is doing all this as a courtesy (not to sure what she meant by that since at this point all she has done was the first initial consult 30 min and wrote an email) at this point I thought we were providing this info so she could tell us if she would even take the case. We had no problem paying for her services which we don’t even know what that was and well now after that call she says she wouldn’t want to take our case which after the dragging out just for her to tell us that she wouldn’t even take the case that’s for the best but now it’s 3 weeks out and we’re at square one. Honestly I believe the communication was unclear and that is essential in looking for a lawyer. So if that’s important to you just go with someone else

To begin, our first court appearance at 8:30, she came in at nearly 12 noon. It was embarrasing - the deputy had to go up and down court rooms looking for her. Never said sorry. My ex husband was able to get 100% legal and physical of our son despite his domestic violence record and Nicole did not... even ask why. My divorce ended up taking 2 and half years - time during which my ex husband's criminal defense attorney mopped the floor with Nicole. It always felt like we were at their mercy - She'd ask for discovery papers, he would say he mailed them when he didn't and then blame her because "her office must have lost them". She LOVES to charge for faxing, mailing, reading emails or talking on the phone. Also, she charged me for drive time - $250 per hour while she sat in LA traffic. Court dates would take 6-7 hrs, plus 3 hrs of drive @ $250 - you do the math. I dug out tons of land titles, real state deeds, violations, police reports etc etc and we still lost. Also, I was jobless, and with my ex working, she did not ask for spousal support. The worst - She pressured me, while I cried in the courthouse to sign the final settlement which included FORGERY which we had tons of proof for. Also, in the agreement, she agreed that ex husband would have complete control of who he hired to sell our home giving me no say at all of how, when or why. She just looked like she wanted to give up and go home. For our last court appearance, Nicole was late again, never saying sorry, again. It cost me $16,000.00 of money it took me years to earn, and she got them in months sitting behind her desk, screaming at me in the courthouse and leaving me homeless. Do not hire.