I hired Melissa for my divorce and my experience with this firm was good in the beginning. But after 2 years and nearly $45,000 later, still very much NOT divorced, I had a very different experience… Melissa was very busy. It was difficult to get her on the phone or to respond to email and when she did, I was generally berated for taking up her time…even though I was paying for it! And in fact, she never even showed up for me at court. Not even once!! The times we went to court for hearings, Maida stepped in at the last minute. Not good for preparation. Nothing I could do about it. There was so much paperwork involved I didn’t understand. Melissa could not be bothered to explain it to me so if I messed something up, I would get billed, it delayed time, and then I would get billed a second time for the same paperwork. There was a lot of turnover in her office and the ball was dropped several times. I paid her to file paperwork with the court, she neglected to do so in a timely manner, giving my ex the opportunity to make himself look “unemployed” which then caused more delays. When my first I & E was filed, she included my tax return for that year. It’s good to show the court transparency yes, but she neglected to redact ANY sensitive info. Therefore, she exposed both my children, myself and my ex’s social security and other personal data to anyone who wants to request my documents and I have NO WAY of fixing this. That’s just common sense, redact personal info that gets filed with the court!!!!! Eventually, Maida became my attorney (when Melissa finally admitted she was too busy for me) and her paralegal David were better to work with. She did take the time to explain things to me, which helped immensely. But bills kept coming in and before I knew it, I was trying to offer my wedding ring as collateral cause I was completely out of money. For example, I was charged several times for “notice of unavailability” of my attorney at roughly $350 each time. Later, when I finished my divorce with another firm, a “notice of unavailability” was ZERO! Yes, no payment required! Once I ran out of money, this firm quickly and swiftly canceled our contract and that was the last time we were in contact. At this point, I could not determine who was worse, my ex or this person who vowed to represent me to the best of her ability. What a joke. For the second two years of my divorce, I worked with another firm and had a polar opposite experience. Which really made me understand how poorly I was treated with Melissa Cianci’s firm. This other firm was extremely professional, helpful, responsive, and they treated me with dignity, respect and understanding knowing that this was the most difficult and painful time of my life. I finished my divorce process with this other firm and for almost the same amount of time, my total bill with the second firm…about $6000.
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