Michael Roger Schneider

I was so disappointed in the performance of Michael Schneider and his legal staff that I don’t even know where to begin. My case was a relatively simple one. Divorce. No kids involved. A not very complicated property and financial settlement. Michael & his staff were consistently uncommunicative, d...id not explain things thoroughly or in language that I could understand [I have a MS degree, but don’t know much about law]. He and his staff [Tracy & Mariah] raised their voices and were rude to me more than once. My phone calls & emails repeatedly went ignored. I was given a ‘big talk’ when I retained him about not bugging them by calling often and asking lots of questions. I held up my end of the bargain, but when I did call or email to ask about my case my calls/emails went unreturned. He never took the time to explain things or discuss options. Months would go by between hearing from him. Months. He was repeatedly late to court appearances. How anxious would you be if you found yourself in court and the bailiff was swearing everyone in and your lawyer hadn’t arrived yet? No “I’m sorry for being late” or explanation or anything. But you know what? The bills were mailed to me in a very timely manner. They were never late once in that regard. He made an already painful and difficult process more difficult and anxiety-provoking due to the uncertainty of not being sure that my lawyer was even on my side. And in the end: The case dragged on for over 2 years and he lost the case for me. I had a reasonable case. The respondent didn’t even have a lawyer. He was up against a lay person with no legal training representing themselves. Not being aggressive enough with the respondent, failing to give good legal advice, not brining up pertinent information in court or in his documentation, and citing an unrelated precedent that the judge shot down. In her judgment, the judge basically accused me of making bad decisions and stated that I ought to have known better because I had a lawyer. What does that tell me? That my lawyer either didn’t give me good advice or neglected to give me advice at all. It will be easy to read this and decide that I am angry about the case being botched/lost. Yeah, maybe some. But please don’t make that mistake. All feelings about my divorce and ex aside: Michael did a poor job of communicating with me, of representing me and he and his staff were rude and just never seemed to have time to answer questions. You decide. Why do you hire a lawyer? To guide you through the legal process, give you prompt sound legal advice and represent you well in court, right? Michael did none of the above. Think twice . . . hire somebody else. My advice is to do the leg work and get a reference from someone you know prior to hiring a lawyer. I would never consider under any circumstances re-hiring Family Law of Riverside or Michael Schneider.

I can't say enough of how grateful I am for having had my custody case handled by Mr. Schneider. Going to an attorney is a stressful task and even more to place the chance of custody of my child in the hands of one. I was intimidaded by the tactics of my spouse's lawyer, and decided to seek my own. V...ery glad I did. The outcome of the custody ended up being way better than what I was told by 2 other attorneys I interviewed prior to going to the Family Law Center. Mr. Schneider was caring yet agressive enough to get everything I was entitled to under the law and loopholes that most attorneys don't bother to read up on. Thank for everything you and your staff did for my case. I'll be sure to refer whoever is in need of a great lawyer to you!!