Shelley L. Brandt

When I explained I was divorcing an abusive narcissist who had a lot of money to burn and loved playing games with the family court, dragging everything out to deplete my resources she used it as an opportunity for her instead of a chance to protect her vulnerable client. She did not follow thro...ugh to settle anything after my ex withheld spousal support, put all the debt in my name cashed out my retirement and lied on financial disclosures. Her advice and actions made me feel like she was protecting the ex and dragging it on instead! It was crazy! She did not get aggressive or push for a settlement on so many opportunities when they were available to end the nightmare for me. In the end I walked away with nothing but debt I mean nothing! but a broke down car that had to go to the crusher months later, 70k in attorney fees (45k were hers ) and 50k in community debt. The worst is my kids- Mid way through I had to move out of state for my physical safety and without my kids (because of the parenting plan) to become gainfully employed during Covid pandemic to try to make a life for them and to be able to keep paying her. When i couldn’t pay her and survive -even though our agreement was she’d be paid upon settlement which she wasn’t getting anywhere close to after 1 year- -she dumped me and put a lien on my home- so i lost that too. In the end I had no one to fight for custody after being the only parent at home for 16 years! supporting an ex who now earns 4x as much as me. Now I see only them 5 times a year. I pay all the support to him and get support to cover my kids airplane fare. ( otherwise id never see them) I went on to represent myself for another full year I hired someone to end it and they did in one month. But there was nothing left for me at that point and I couldn’t afford a trial to move my kids back to me. I often wonder if I had never met her where would i be ? In my house with my kids and even less than reasonable support until i could get them graduated after a 20 year marriage?. I still haven’t met another divorced mom whose outcome was this bad. BTW l later learned her firm was in serious financial trouble because of payroll theft by a by a former employee/ relative during my divorce proceedings so I cant help but believe the other reviews that peoples bills were run up with no results are factual we were all being used to recoup that loss Nothing will ever be nice about divorce most people so t love their divorce attorney that’s understandable but this one had catastrophic. results. Do your research well or it can really go this poorly for you!