Michelle Renee Penna

I hired Michelle during one of the most vulnerable and traumatic times of mine and my children’s lives. She made big promises, didn’t deliver, and drug things out for billable hours, while she knew my kids were going through hell when with their dad. I was never in the courtroom with her, always made... to wait outside of it. I remember one court date, where I became very frustrated as the court was once AGAIN postponed, and she turned around, away from me, and said to her associate, “She’s so I unappreciative”, referring to me. Very unprofessional at times. I finally had to fire her and retained another lawyer who had my children’s best interest at heart and got results and resolution, and always had me in the courtroom with him. If you can, try to work things out in your marriage. If you can’t, try to keep it out of the courts, and work out an agreement that’s good for the kids.

Being a business owner, I typically only leave reviews for one of two reasons; Either what I experienced was above average, exceeded expectations, & the business deserves the shout out. Secondary, as a forewarning to others the business was such a letdown & did so horribly, avoid wasting your money. ...Unfortunately, my experience with Michelle & her firm was the latter. Custody is never easy and conflict was high with my case as I was barely able to see my kids for almost 2 months. I reached out to Penna Coker Law & spoke with Michelle, once & only once with an initial free consultation. After listening to my case, she provided pieces of an aggressive game plan & some guidance that gave me hope. I retained Michelle's firm & she assured me along with her team, she would be there to continue providing legal guidance. She couldn't have been more wrong. I spent the next 3 weeks with unanswered questions, confused, afraid, & completely left in the dark without a single word from Michelle until I terminated her firm. Things started off rocky with over 20 misspellings on the initial filing, including several of my son's name which would be correct on one line, incorrect on another, correct, then incorrect. Other misspellings included commonly used words or incorrect grammar. If you're going to charge $350/hr for a paralegal's work, at least have them run spell-check. Even Windows 98 had spell check... After that, they filed a document I never saw until after they filed with court & misspelled CALLIFORNIA. The state they're practicing law in. I emailed my attorney directly 6 times & called 6 times requesting to speak with Michelle over a 3 week period. I always got the same excuses of why she wasn't available & after taking my money, Michelle didn't see my case fit enough to take even one more second of her time on me. Michelle was so uninvolved & out of the loop, in one of her final emails to me she made several references to my "child". I have two children Michelle. After being fired, Michelle was so kind as to take the liberty of filling in my new attorney, then bill me for her time. Neither my new attorney nor I requested Michelle to inform my new counsel how to do their job. $4,500 initial retainer, then Michelle informed me "there was so much work done on my case" & then I got another $3k bill a month later. I just hit the same total amount with my current attorney after 7 weeks, who also got me custody orders & overnight alternate weekends with my kids after 11 days. Michelle advised me to file an aggressive restraining order, then admitted to me in an email (after termination) that evidence wasn't concrete enough. Had I pursued what Michelle advised with fantastic odds of losing, I was potentially liable to pay the opposing side's legal fees if I hadn't decided to drop the case. If you're looking for help with your family law case, I would recommend any firm but this one.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY WITH MICHELLE PENNA’S LAW FIRM. My husband and I hired Michelle Penna of Michelle Penna’s Law firm to represent my son in an Emergency Custody Hearing against his ex-girlfriend. We paid Michelle Penna a retainer of $3500. Michelle Penna’s Law office managed to spend the... entire retainer plus more. We never even got as far as a day in court. Where did all the retainer money go? Michelle Penna’s Law firm managed to spend the entire $3500 and is requesting an additional $141.25 for doing nothing to help my son's defense. My son’s ex-girlfriend filed a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against my son. A bogus restraining order that was dropped after we fired Michelle Penna’s Law Firm and hired a new attorney to represent and fight for my son. My son said a stupid remark to his ex-girlfriend out of sheer frustration of not being able to see his daughter. His ex-girlfriend after getting a new boyfriend stopped allowing my son and our family to see his daughter for no reason. Out of frustration towards his ex-girlfriend my son said to his ex-girlfriend “If you were a man, I would kill you right now”. Yes, we know how bad that sounds. Although, my son agrees that was not the right way to express his frustration. He has never threatened his ex-girlfriend and has never been a threat to his ex-girlfriend. My son was scared about the TRO and had numerous questions to ask Michelle Penna for legal advice. Michelle Penna never contacted my son regarding the TRO. We requested several times to have Michelle Penna contact my son to give him legal advice. We waited for Michelle Penna to contact to discuss with my son on how to respond to the TRO. Michelle Penna was never in the office. Or never available to talk to us. We quickly got the feeling that Michelle Penna was not up for the challenge to fight for my son. We felt defeated. We felt Michelle Penna’s law firm was not on our side. Michelle Penna never called to listen to my son's side of the story. Michelle Penna ignored our requests for legal advice. By not willing to communicate with my son directly on such a serious matter as TRO. We felt hopeless. Luckily for my son and our family we were referred to a local attorney that has a great reputation in the Inland Empire for child custody and Criminal law defense. This new attorney quickly put us at ease in our very first consultation. We instantly felt a sense of relief that this new attorney listened and understood my son. He had a Pitbull don’t mess with my client attitude against this bogus TRO. Wow, we had an attorney that wanted to fight for my son. We fired Michelle Penna’s law firm that same day and hired this new attorney. Within weeks of obtaining this new attorney the TRO Temporary Restraining Order was dropped! We never even had to go as far as to have a day in court. This new attorney fought for my son by communicating and meeting with us directly. This attorney contacted the ex-girlfriend’s attorney that next day regarding the TRO. Michelle Penna ‘s law office had us feeling like we had no hope. We were ready to give up. We felt Michelle Penna’s Law firm was not willing to fight for my son. If it wasn’t for the new attorney we hired we are confident that if we had stayed with Michelle Penna’s law firm my son would have a Restraining Order on his record and more time not allowed to see his child. Which could have also ruined his chances of a career with law enforcement as a police officer. The only thing Michelle Penna's law firm is good at is taking your money. She never tried to fight for my son's TRO. Don't waste your money on hiring an attorney that is not willing to contact you directly about your case. That should be your first red flag when an attorney doesn't contact you directly on such a serious matter as a TRO. Our new attorney answered every call we made and he was sure to speak to us directly.

I hired Michelle to handle my case when my husband was adopting my son. Very satisfied with how she did everything. She communicated very well on what to expect, always returned my phone calls and just an over all great attorney! I would recommend her to anyone that is looking to hire a family law at...torney!