Shawn Dougherty

I hired Ms Dougherty to help me retain joint custody of my daughter. She was late to meetings, missed (and would not listen to) critical information, and over billed me. I lost custody specifically due to her lack of preparation. Her final bill was high so I asked her to itemize her charges, she d...id not. There is more. Beware of working with this person.

Run the other way!!! She will not explain anything to you and if you call her she has an attitude like you interupted her day even tho your paying her way too much for what shes worth. Also she will meet you in the hallway of court room 3 mins before seeing judge even tho she said she be there 30 min... before and then procceed to coarse you into agreeing to somthing before seeing the judge. She will try to make you agree to terms more suitable for your counterparts who she isnt representing. Like previously stated, Run!!!

I hired this attorney to handle my separation, divorce, custody, etc. She was so mean. I did not need someone to babysit me but since divorce & custody are such difficult things to go through, a person DOES need his/her attorney that he/she is paying a lot of money for to explain things thoroughly. I... had called Shawn for advice (isn't that what a lawyer is for?) and she would yell at me telling me that I am wasting her time. She constantly told me that my asking questions was a waste of her time. The last thing that happened was she doubled booked mediation with me and another one of her clients. She didn't tell me until we were there for the mediation appointment. She continued to leave my mediation at majorly critical times in my appointment and then yell at me about me saying the wrong things and agreeing to things that I should not have. Not only that, but while the mediator was not speaking to us she had a personal conversation with the opposing attorney laughing & yakking it up...on MY dime (full amount even though she wasn't even there half the time & every time I needed her she was not there)! After that last experience, I went home & drafted my letter to fire her & faxed it right away. I have never interacted with someone so mean, nasty, rude, belittling, etc. If you are paying so much money for the attorney service, then why should you have to have severely thick skin because you constantly are getting yelled at & belittled, figure out for yourself anything that is happening or going to happen with your court case & not ask any questions & be totally accepting with whatever she decides she wants your outcome to be? For most people & myself that don't need hand-holding but DO need some type of guidance & someone to answer questions that may arise, then she is NOT the lawyer for them or me!

My fiance hired her for his divorce about a year ago and she was horrible. She would yell and him if he called her and didn't feel like the question was important enough or if she felt like he was wasting her time. She wasn't able to make it to one of his court cases and asked him why he agreed to pa...y more child support than the court calculated. How are you going to expect some one that has never gone though something like this to just go into a court room and know what they are doing that why we hired you. Then she forgot to forward some documentation over to the court after he hand delivered them to her office. Not a good lawyer a waste of thousands of dollars