Michele K McNeill

I hired Michele for two different civil cases. The first civil case involved settling a lien against my property (co-owned) from a roofing company to avoid foreclosure. The general contractor that was hired had run off with the paid money, and the 4th party contractor who completed the work was n...ot paid. The lien was resolved by a negotiated rate and cost split outside of court between their lawyer and Michele, who represented me. The second civil case I hired Michele for was to resolve a Default Judgment against me involving the same property after a dissolution/separation of the shared owners could not be resolved outside of court. The default judgment was won in court, as I was not served correctly, which extended the lawsuit a year. This civil case I hired Michele for is still ongoing and is now in mediation; we reached an agreement to sell the house mutually, outside of a forced sale. Michele’s attention to detail and thorough approach make her a standout choice for property litigation. She is dedicated to crafting well-written court documents, earning the respect of judges and fellow lawyers. Michele is committed to ensuring her clients’ truth leads to successful case outcomes. I believe Michele is the attorney to turn to when faced with a complex situation and a sizable amount of evidence. I highly recommend her services!

I hired Michele as my attorney in February of this year to help me with a personal property case. My jeweler had lost my engagement ring the September before and was failing to replace it as he had promised. I had already been through a lot with this jeweler so I was really looking for someone who wo...uld be able to help and support me in getting my ring back. I explained what had happened from start to finish to Michele and she agreed to take my case on. She explained the first steps, was responsive and made me feel understood and supported, but that did not last the entire relationship. Throughout the 7 months we worked together communications were delayed and lacking, and as time progressed I felt more like I was paying for a messenger than an advocate. At times, it even felt as though Michele was catering more to opposing counsel than me, her client. To add to the frustration, as I was in the middle of feeling disappointed, I received a notice that she would be increasing her prices. Also, my husband and I have had our names either misspelled or called the incorrect name multiple times. In one of my last email correspondence, her assistant called me the completely incorrect name, I replied and let her know that wasn't my name, then she called me the wrong name again in her next email and never apologized. Super bizarre and unprofessional. Even in trying to figure out a billing issue, her assistant didn't understand how their billing system works on the client-end, which made for additional unnecessary confusion and frustrations. I considered hiring another attorney multiple times but at those points, I felt as though my hands were tied because of how involved things were already and my fear that changing would set things back even more. It took 7 months for me to finally receive my ring. I'm glad I finally have it but feel strongly that I could've have achieved this with a different attorney and had a better experience while doing so. If you want an attorney and team that is consistently responsive, detail-oriented, professional and someone to make you feel supported and advocated for, I recommend looking elsewhere.

Wanted legal advice on a fairly routine easement running across my property for a utility company proposing to expand its use through my Woodinville land. We have had power lines cut across our back yard for the entire 18 years we have lived here -- but we are concerned and sought advice about how t...o react to a power company proposal to add additional capacity and poles in our community along with a new and more restrictive easement agreement offered by the power company to affected property owners. I conducted ALL of the necessary title research myself at county archives and obtained certified copies of prior easements dating back to the early 1900's (2 pages) which pre-dated my ownership of the property; I secured all available documents from the power company explaining their proposed expanded use (2 pages); and provided a marked-up copy (3 pages) of the draft new easement agreement from the power company -- and then I digitized the materials on my scanner and sent them via email to McNeill. About 10 pages of material in total. I provided an upfront $250 as a deposit for legal services. We met for just under one hour at McNeill's Bellevue offices -- attorney was almost ten minutes late for the scheduled appointment -- to discuss her findings and observations. McNeill prepared no letters, written suggestions, easement amendments or legal analysis demonstrating any significant review of the materials provided or the process entailed in modifying the existing easement agreement with new provisions as proposed by the power company. In fact, McNeill offered little more than oral commentary essentially urging restraint and common sense in the matter (duh!), suggesting I could meet and work out a deal with the power company for their intended expansion of use on my land. She offered no inventory of potential opportunities to leverage my position using federal, state & local permits; no analysis demonstrating the respective strengths and weaknesses of the opposing positions held by myself or the power company in this potential dispute; no suggestions to push for an environmental impact review to assess impacts of proposed new high voltage power lines running 30 feet outside my back window; she did not direct me to the Utilities & Transportation Commission or refer me to any WAC or RCW citations: in short, there were no particularly helpful suggestions or alternatives described to me regarding potential next steps. Even more bewildering -- McNeill asserted in our meeting that the power company might not even have a valid easement across my land. Weeks later, I was billed an additional $292.50 for "preparation for meeting with client". I am disappointed with the limited effort and corresponding excessive charges levied by this attorney on my due diligence review effort. To this day -- the only thing I have received in writing from this attorney are emails scheduling the appointment and a $542.50 bill. I do not feel that I have received value for this expenditure. I would strongly urge anyone looking for assistance to seek counsel somewhere else.

I had an issue come up with regards to property boundaries in selling our house and needed some precise answers quickly. Michele did exactly what we asked for and and wrote an excellent letter which we were able to give to another party to get them to back off. I would highly recommend Michele for ad...vise about real estate matters.