Grace Lea Chang

It's a long story. How should I start. It's a painful and long story. My child's father was working overseas for 4 years. He was having affair with another girl who didn't know he was married with a child. They went to Japan for vacation. I didn't know about this until I couldn't find him for a... week when he said he was at work. I stayed with my parents who help me take care of my son. I had difficult pregnancy and unexpected C-section and some complications. He was calling me failed mom and fat. He complained that I spent too much money on the CHILD. I was stupid and I didn't spend any money on myself. I'm a saver and a busy mom. I didn't have time for myself. He cancelled our joint credit card and served me with divorce paper one month after he came back from Asia. He took our house and took my stuff and jewelry and antiques..... after he got the U.S. citizenship. He was trying to kidnap our child to Asia. He was trying to take away my physical custody. He came me so much problems with visitation and late child and spousal support payments...He was always late during the visitation and left early. It was only 4 hours a week. He missed 8 times visitation. He called the child stupid. He didn't care about the child. He didn't want to pay. Grace MADE HIM PAY. Grace helped me a lot. Today I finally signed all the court papers. I got a good settlement with good child support. My child is not even 3 years old. He will be paying for a long time. The bad thing is father refused to pay for the child's college even though I proposed that he only pays if the child can't get financial aid and scholarships. He refused and he said he doesn't care about college education. He wouldn't put our child as a beneficiary on his life insurance (not even for 50%). I tried to save the marriage for our child for one year. I had to let him go because he is not caring about our child. His parents and he took me sign off my name on the deed one day without my prior consent. I was a nice person. The case is very complicated. I'm glad Grace could help me go though the most difficult part of my life. She is very knowledgeable and very professional. She is very efficient when she works. No drama. She always told me during the case that I was the boss because I hired her. She always wanted to hear what I wanted at different stages of the case. let's admit: couples change their minds all the time. As a lawyer, she made sure I didn't settle because of pressure, she made sure that I knew what I really want from the divorce, she made sure that I understand all the consequences of everything I do or say during the divorce. She is very protective and honest. She is straight forward, nothing hidden. Fees are very reasonable consider the amount of work being done. I did interview many top lawyers in Los Angeles County and Orange County because my ex filed in OC which was the wrong jurisdiction. Like everyone else: I want great lawyer to represent me and doesn't charge too much. I finally came back to Grace because she knows what I want, she would help me to get what I want: JUSTICE! The most important thing: she cares! Now I finally got what I want. I'm ready to move on and focus on myself and my child. Even after we closed the case, she still inform the client about the possible future problems and what to do when the clients run into these problems. She warned me for lots of things. I do have a small child with my ex. I didn't pay her until one year later when the case was closed. She gave me a big discount. She was very good in front of the judge when we went to the hearings. She made the other lawyer looked 'stupid', 'unprofessional', and 'unprepared'... I don't really want to use these words. The other lawyer was working hard, but not hard enough like Grace. She is a tough woman. I've see many happy customers during my one year experience with Grace. Staffs are nice too.

It has been over a month since we've requested refund of our retainer balance. She asked for about $2000, which she took immediately out of our account. There was about 1 hour of work only done. She owes us the balance, but her excuse was first that she was too busy to issue a refund and second tha...t her employee is on vacation and cannot issue the refund. She also seems to have an adversarial attitude which would stir up conflict between partners in a marriage, rather than resolve them. I would never hire her again. It's a 2 attorney firm, and I don't see why she can't simply write a check and give it to us.

Ms. Chang's office gave you an initial good impression. However after a few meetings with her staff and herself, it was clear that she mistated her work, was completely unprepared and avoided court appearances due to her lack of preparation. She allowed my ex-wife's attorney walk all over me without ...a single counter proposal. After being fired, she presented me with an over inflated bill.

I had an absolutely awful experience with Grace. At first, I believed that she was going to walk me through my custody and child support case with knowledge and help. She seemed willing. However, after receiving my retainer, very little was done after that. Yes, they filed my papers, but I had to go ...through three rounds of corrections on them- FACTUAL errors- that were not in my original statement. Then, I had to call, email and email again in order to get a response. Her associate handled most of my papers. Once we got to court, the real Grace came out. She was unprepared, had no idea about my case, went as far as to go on a random tangential rant about my ex that was specifically UNTRUE and then turn to me and say, "oops, I forgot." We got nothing accomplished in court that day, and I don't want to ever use this law firm again. I'm surprised how miserably my case was handled. To this day, I still never received responses on several questions.