Erica Michelle Bansmer

This lawyer lacked substance, character and respect. Always unprepared and plays blaming game on clients. She helped me with my restraining order hearing as well as custody, however opposing party is now claiming he was not properly served and was unaware of the custody hearing and he is now requ...esting changes. Her office turned around to charge me even much more to represent me for the same case that they messed up by leaving loop holes. I also retained her for divorce however all my retention fees ran out in her office without her office moving the case to court. From their invoice, they claimed phone calls and emails claimed all my retention fee. At a time they told me they were in negotiation process , turns out they never moved it beyond my documents sitting in their office. They hardly find time to do anything. After two ro three months I called them for an update, that's when they told me that some bank statements did not carry the dates they wanted and that was never communited to me until I have called multiple times seeking to know the status of my divorce. She was very unapologetic instead she blamed it all on me, I felt victimized . My divorce was unnecessarily delayed such that I am now looking for another lawyer to move it forward but her and her office are refusing to pay back my retention fees for the divorce. Beware of their so called "flat fee" because that's a trap, its not really a flat fee, you may go bankrupt. My experience with other lawyers is by far much better and I could tell the big difference. I noticed that they are not transparent and honest about a lot of things. She shifts her position on things and she just keep changing. I could never reach her over the phone and my email responses takes an average of a week or more to get response. They will try everything to get you to retain them but once you retain them its another game. I think they are too busy to handle their cases, I am convinced that she did not represent my best interest. She is very unpredictable and can easily run out of patience. One time I took my friend to her office to witness how she conducts herself but my friend came out very disappointed and upset about her conduct and her mishandling my case and he advised me to get another lawyer. There were so many things I cannot wrote here. I felt victimized in their lack of sensitivity and conduct. You can still retain her but learn from my mistakes.

I saw Erica Bansmer ad on the internet ,I'm currently going through a divorce so I thought I would hire her for the rest of the process,during the first meeting she was nice and cordial i felt at ease with hiring her,at the end of the meeting she said she's going to take as long as possible on this d...ivorce I'm new at this so i said ok but still alittle weird why would i want this to take a long time? ok a year passes I'm getting no communication or anything at this point from her so I call and ask what's going on with the divorce,this is with her paralegal they write up a few papers I say I might like his wages garnished I still wasnt sure so her paralegal gives me papers for the tracking of the income hes been giving me,I didnt do it I didnt want his wages garnished after all,we went to court she was never prepared I told the paralegal on different occasions it's like she working more for them then me,I dont know the law she wasnt guiding me or letting me know what's the best route to take,before court I was expressing my feelings about my son how I told him no he cant stay late for a party he was disrespectful so I told him your not coming over until you apologize to me I didnt deserve what he said..Erica says to me I shouldn't have said that to my son about him being disrespectful so I was upset during the court proceedings...a couple months passed I never heard the outcome of the hearing I call they tell me..there is absolutely no communication whatsoever in this office,I was getting upset at this point nothing is being done about my divorce it's like pulling teeth for them to do anything,the paralegal hangs up on me because I never get to talk to the lawyer and there's no communication..they submitted paperwork for the garnishment without my approval or concent I found this out through my ex not my lawyer I get upset she tells me I signed paperwork which I clearly did not ,she said she submitted paperwork with the court I called nothing was filed the only thing I signed was the payment history in the middle of may which her office submitted the garnishment at the end of april..I tried to make it work with this office for what she did I could have saved thousands of dollars she did absolutely nothing I couldn't have done myself which I know now..I believe she's not the right fit she will lie to you unprofessional staff and NO communication,its been 2 years and I'm still not divorced..this has been a horrible experience with this firm ...just do your homework if you ever decide to hire her.Its bad enough to go through a divorce you dont need a bad lawyer too.