Theresa Petrey

I write this review not as a disgruntled client rather, a parent who is concerned for all future parents and clients in similar position seeking representation in court. I would not recommend Mrs. Petrey to even my worst enemy. She is a very poor communicator, it would sometimes take months to... get any answer from her for basic question such as "Have you prepared my patenting plan to be deliver to opposing counsel?" It took her six months, and over $10,000, to file the first piece of basic paperwork to the court and she filed it improperly. During a hearing the court had to tell her the proper way to file it and of course I got charged for that filing process as well. She would charge me for phone conversation she initiated to rehash information that we had previously talked about and agreed on because she would never write anything down or prepare stuff in a timely manner. So I would essentially be charged double the amount for work that should have been done the first time. There were also times when I would be charged three times for the exact same phone conversation because they were three people in her office on the call for no reason. I would often be charged for preperation work I did and basic clerical items that should not have been charged for. Through this entire process she acted as though she knew what steps needed to be taken at what time and how to fully address our situation from a legal standpoint. But as we'd hit roadblock after roadblock her excuse always seem to be "well I've never done this before so let's try this another way." Or "I have to research this because I've never even heard of it." Any person with a genuine amount of integrity, or any at all for that matter, would see the amount of hurt that families go through during the court processes and the strain caused on the children and would realize that if they didn't have the legitimate abilities to fully act in a manner helpful to that family that they would pass the case on to an attorney with the full capabilities to do so. She lacked that integrity and lacked the respect for me and my family to even tell us prior to things what was going on and why it was that she didn't want to follow through. In the end, the thing that bothers me most about her and her ethics wasn't the over $40,000 that I had to pay but rather what she took away from my family and the things that we could have done together. It was also the time spent in her procrastination that I lost time, memories and communication with my children and that my other children lost with their siblings. This stretched out process caused our whole family a considerable amount of stress, grief, tears, torment and anxiety. Feelings children should never have to experience. Mrs Petrey was out for her own best interest rather than the best interest of her client. After over a year, $40,000+ and multiple trials, I was in a worse place than I was before I made the very first call to Mrs Petrey's office. It wasn't until I fired her and got a new attorney that stuff started seeing things happen on the timely manner and the successes that should have been scene under Miss Petrie's representation. My family is now seeing success in making all of these memories we have so much desired. When it comes to family law, Mrs Petrie's firm is not a firm that has your family's best interest at heart.