Chelsea Nichole Scott

This is for a divorce case with one child, and I have never used a lawyer for anything prior. Chelsea was disorganized-she often didn't know what I was talking about when referring to documentation I had sent her, or emails. She made false promises of the least amount of alimony I could expect, and... the final decree came in way under that. She was condescending at times. I was distraught with an outcome I never expected-losing my young son for a week at a time-and she snidely told me she thought I was heading into a downward spiral. She is not a mother, so seems to be immature and lack empathy toward mothers. One of the worst things she did was not filing our response with the courts, so the judge called her out for it right when we first stepped up to the podium. He literally stated he does not have half of our argument. I was so embarrassed, and it made an already stressful situation far worse and scarier. One would think she would have had a copy on hand, but she did not. She asked me if I wanted to continue with the proceedings even though she was unprepared. I am very inexperienced so I didn't know what to do. I chose to continue, which I believe severely weakened my case. She should have advised me to wait. The entire court experience was nothing like she had led me to believe, and I was not prepared for what happened. After the court hearing, my ex, his lawyer, and Chelsea all went downstairs to sign papers, and she told me to stay put. I find that very strange now looking back. Chelsea couldn't keep track of billing, either. We had an agreement-I paid for ten hours, and once those were up, she would let me know so I could choose to continue or not. She never let me know when those ended, so I had an unexpected 3000.00+ bill after all was said and done. I did have email documentation showing our original agreement, so they did reduce to bill to only include her travel time and the filing fees, which I am on a payment plan for. She did try to get me to convert to a normal retainer, but I said no, as I was done putting the fate of my life, and my children's lives, into her incapable hands. I requested copies of the final documentation long after our hearing, because I never received them. She condescendingly stated she had already emailed them, but upon looking back through her sent mail realized I was never copied on them. Long story short-way too many mistakes and carelessness. What I have shared does not encompass all of the problems that occurred, only highlights a few. I truly feel I could have done a better job myself, and I regret daily not choosing a different route when the red flags first began. I am not exaggerating when I say I am traumatized from the entire experience. If your hope is to have a semi-positive experience through a difficult time, please, please look elsewhere.