WARNING: simple divorce cost 38,000 dollars. Never went to court once. I was told I was family and would never hurt me. Well he did. My sister just passed away he did her final papers. My brother in law recommended him to me. I hired him for a certain amount of money but he decided to hand my case to another lawyer. Not telling me that she was going to charge me over 300.00 dollars an hour. There was many mistakes made many. I found out I was divorced from my kids. No call from my lawyer just and email that he charged me for but the email was way after the divorce was final. I have met with 4 lawyers who are sad that these kind of lawyers give them a bad name. Office staff will tell u he will be in the office today, a week later he will call u and say I was on vacation. Happens 6 times. Also he had 5 different people working on a divorce which means you pay all 5. Very unorganized overpriced lawyer. I would not recommend ANYONE to use this company. He didn't get anything for me other than the state law requires. Feeling ripped off taken advantage of. I stopped getting billing statements as soon as soon as he got a 40,000 lean against my home. He always said He would find out why no billing statements but of course never did. He made sure he used it all. Be very careful who u choose for a lawyer even if they say there family. Choose wisely!! Didn't finish my case the 38,000 did NOT cover the QDRO. Separation of retirement. Wanted a 1,000 to do it. Got it done for 300.00 by a respectable paralegal. If you need a lawyer call the BBB they will recommend you someone who will not RIP u off feeling defeated. Please choose wisely!!! Sterns and Sterns took a quarter of my earnings. Only got what the state law says so I could have hired anybody. Just beware!!!!! I also had a budget BUT he decided to stop billing me so he took off with my budget! Also paid to get my ex-husband's paychecks garnished and paid Ryan for it. I paid for it but it never happened. I will continue to tell people please call the BBB they will get you a lawyer and not take your money. Now that I have used Ryan and two other lawyers and a paralegal I know for sure that sterns and sterns over charged me by thoudands. I was told that $38,000 was way too much for what I got. Ryan made an agreement with me over the phone for a certain amount of money and decided to change All on his own. Please think about who you were hiring even if they say they are family look into their business find out not who they are as a person who they are as a businessman. I trusted him and so did my family but he has lost more respect than he will ever know. I just want people to be aware and know what they're getting and just because somebody says their family get it in writing. I tried to talk to Ryan and resolve this. He wouldn't budge he hardly had anything to say because he knew he was wrong. My new lawyer would have charged me at the very most $15,000. So just remember that when you go to look for a lawyer remember what Stearns and Stearns did to me and probably others too. Lawyers aren't rock stars! So years later I see all the charges I did not get sevice for. Beware call the BBB. Don't you think your lawyer would go over the divorce papers with you.? No no nothing he mailed me my divorce papers and never spoke to me about what I was getting. Also he never ever checked in to make sure my name was off the house loan. He really really screwed me over and if I were you I would not use him as a lawyer. Please look it up this lawyer has been disciplined by the licensing authorities. Look it up.
Diana Lund
over 4 years ago