Melissa Marie Denton

I submitted a email to avvo looking for help, I was contacted by 3 attys over the week after, Melissa Denton was the first to reply and the only one who contacted me personally the other two had assistants make contact . I immediately felt relief just from listening to vm. when I called her back the ...next day she took my call which happened to be a holiday. I was able to find out things that the other two lawyers would need a large consult fee to answer, melissa denton was understanding patient and assertive, listened without judgement and never once made me feel like it was all about getting hired, she is very helpful and i believe that she truly cares . I am not yet able to retain an attorney but as soon as I am Melissa Denton will be who i hire

I was in a custody battle for a little over 5 years when my daughter was little, and it was a real mess. I had been through many attorney's who did not understand the complexity of my case, all the filings and restrictions that were placed on me were something they could not undo, and they made me f...eel that my case was hopeless. It ended in a way that was not favorable to me and I see that it was taken way too far–it was taken to trial and it did not need to be. I was granted liberal visitation but my daughter lived with her father at the end of all that. I am certain the court ruled this way because I had poor legal counsel or–at times, none at all because I couldn’t afford it. The cost of it all was outrageous and unnecessary. When I look back on those years, I am very sorry that I did not have Melissa for legal counsel, as she could have really changed the outcome for my daughter, myself, and all the heartache of families involved--not to mention we would have saved a ton of money. My daughter decided to live with me for high school and moved in. This sparked a new battle: 7 years after the original battle ended, my case was reopened by my ex-husband, again fighting for custody of our daughter. It seemed that the same convoluted filings were made and crazy things happened to the point where I was not allowed to see my 15 year old daughter. Somehow he had managed to file papers that yanked my daughter out of school (and our home) on her second-to-last day of her freshman year, before she had taken her finals, placed me in contempt of court slapped my with all attorney’s fee’s and placed a restraining order on me in what seemed like one fell swoop. I scrambled to find an attorney, found one and retained him. He totally did not help me in this pivotal moment and things became worse for me legally. I felt completely helpless in my situation. I called the attorney I had retained frustrated and said I would not work with him anymore because he made everything worse. He referred me to Melissa Denton. Upon my first meeting with her she clearly understood the series of filings, the situation I was in legally, and my position. She said it would be a matter of undoing what had been done and getting the right evidence in front of the judge. She clearly saw through my mess and constantly put me at ease through the matter. She understood that it was a very stressful time for me and my daughter and was always very assuring, polite and clear about what was happening. She undid all the damage and I regained custody of my daughter in a fairly short amount of time. She is extremely bright and did not miss a single opportunity to clear up my case. She was on top of every single action, quick with responses, and extremely knowledgeable of the system. She always returned calls promptly and is very respectful and honest. Melissa is literally the most effective, professional attorney I have ever worked with. I am very grateful for her services. I would highly recommend her.