Melissa C Golan

At the time I was going through an uncontested divorce and really only needed someone who could file the paperwork appropriately and provide some basic guidance. I obtained her services via ARAG, an employment based legal insurance policy. She was nice enough, but didn't seem particularly vested in i...t and although time was of the essence, things did not move particularly quickly. At my first meeting with her to go over all the documentation that I had sent in, it was obvious that she was looking at it for the first time at that meeting. She didn't come prepared nor had she done any paperwork. The next meeting was set up with my (then) wife and Melissa to go over the completed paperwork and figures. It had taken a long time to get it set up and to get the paperwork together and by then my wife had been getting all kinds of advice and was hedging on moving forward with things. I had advised her to get an attorney to review the paperwork before signing but that we could keep costs down if we had the legal insurance attorney put it together. Things quickly fell apart after that and I felt like the advantage of being agreeable and ready to move forward had passed. My then wife had gotten an attorney and was changing her mind about most things by then. Melissa was not particularly responsive and out of frustration I contacted ARAG to request the ability to change attorneys. I was informed on that call that Melissa Golan had already billed them for the completed divorce (as if it had already taken place). I also learned that ARAG pays a set rate to attorneys and so most of them are only willing to work so much for it to be in their benefit, which is likely a large part of the reason for her lackluster performance. The fact that she billed for a completed divorce is a terrible sign in terms of her ethical standards of business and she should be avoided in my opinion. After performing a formal investigation, ARAG authorized me to change attorneys (usually you cannot because of the 'set fee' thing). My actual divorce proceedings took another year to complete and it was egregiously expensive, but I did have good representation after hiring a private attorney and had faith in that attorney's ability to do the job.