Melissa Danyale Polk

Absolutely horrible attorney. I have worked with many lawyers in my life. Melissa is by far and away the worst. Not only is Melissa completely incompetent but she is also dishonest. 1) she repeatedly provided factually incorrect "advice" contrary to the law. 2) she was unaware of and uninformed a...bout basic aspects of family law that any practicing attorney should know (or anyone who is capable of doing a simple Internet search). This got so bad that judges had to correct her multiple times in court. 3) she made basic math errors in calculating my settlement, left off significant claims I was clearly entitled to, and forgot to include key aspects of the settlement we had discussed many times. 4) her negotiating skills could be generously described as inept. Her general strategy was to give away all of my claims and require nothing of the opposing party. 5) when made aware of her mistakes, instead of acknowledging the errors and attempting to correct them, she lied about what she said even when it was clearly documented in writing. 6) she billed me for work she did not perform, work I specifically did not ask her to do, work to correct her many errors, and in one case double billed me for the same court appearance. When I brought the billing errors to her attention, she refused to respond.

I was referred to Melissa by a fellow attorney of mine who was great. Unfortunately, his recommendation was not. He did not know her personally but trusted she would be competent. Things went well but then when major mistakes were happening (I had specific instructions of what not to do, details to t...he settlement, etc... ) I felt I suddenly had to recheck all her work. When I questioned her she became defensive and abrasive and then it just went downhill where she literally tried to do anything to close my case even when things were left unfinished. She has costed me more pain, anxiety and anguish than when I had going into this case. Her work ethic became terrible, lack of responses to my questions or emails, and bottom line, she made egregious lies once she realized I no longer felt comfortable with working with her. I had a really awful experience and wished more reviews were posted before I made my decision.