My attorney at Cordell Cordell in St Louis MO, Creve Coeur location charged me approximately $15,000 for my case with NO children and few assets. Our relationship ended when she actively colluded with the opposing attorney and began working AGAINST me in the case. I did make the mistake of picking the lower cost, less expensive attorney at the firm however in the beginning of the case I told my attorney to give my wife most of the assets and I would take most of the debt... when i said this the attorney was shaken.. and then replied that I was 'selling myself short'. I interprete this to mean that she knew the case would be over and that she would not be making more money on the case. DO NOT HIRE THIS FIRM. THEY WILL NOT ACT IN YOUR BEST INTEREST.

If you are looking for someone to be on the dad's side run away from this firm as fast as you can. We spent about $8000 with these people only to have our lawyer lay down and die in court. Did not listen to our concerns or address them in court about the mother's instability. Instead we got a lecture from the Judge who was not given the details. Do not believe their commercials they do nothing extra for the dad you will still lose custody in the end with these guys. They are way overpriced. For that $8000 dollars we got nothing more than a couple of motions filed that gave mom everything and we got stuck with a hefty monthly child support payment. This all in a state that happens to be very pro co-parenting. Do yourself a favor and go with a local firm maybe the guy or gal trying to prove themselves. Stay away from these guys you will be sorry. We will be filing a complaint with the Bar association.

If you are looking for someone to be on the dad's side run away from this firm as fast as you can. We spent about $8000 with these people only to have our lawyer lay down and die in court. Did not listen to our concerns or address them in court about the mother's instability. Instead we got a lecture from the Judge who was not given the details. Do not believe their commercials they do nothing extra for the dad you will still lose custody in the end with these guys. They are way overpriced. For that $8000 dollars we got nothing more than a couple of motions filed that gave mom everything and we got stuck with a hefty monthly child support payment. This all in a state that happens to be very pro co-parenting. Do yourself a favor and go with a local firm maybe the guy or gal trying to prove themselves. Stay away from these guys you will be sorry.

Stephanie Shannon is a scam artist! Do not trust these people. I wish I would have read all of these complaints before I hired this firm. They claim to be advocates for dads, its just the opposite. Its all a game the lawyers play to get your money. Spent 8,000.00 and she never even spoke with the other parties lawyer. She only had time to talk to me in the hall. Where on earth do they find people like this, prey on heartbroken dads. People need to stand up against this false advertising and put this company out of business! Spread the word!

I found myself in an unexpected divorce and went to Cordell & Cordell because of the advertising of the "mens attorney". I quickly learned that this was just a lucritive business to make money. I wanted to change firms for most of my divorce but was afraid of starting over and still being screwed by the next group so I stayed with them to the bitter end. I had a fairly simple divorce and no fighting over the kids. It took over a year to complete and cost me $24,000 with Cordell. Many times I had to correct the mistakes of my lawyer and he still billed his hours for fixing his mistakes! I have spoken with men who make more than me and had more assets to seperate that used a mediator and spent 5,000-10,000 total. Remember the 24K was Cordell, she still had a lawyer that charged something similar, which we all know..........we end up paying for.
DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND FORGET THE BLOOD SUCKING LAWYERS AND GO TO A MEDIATOR!!! EVEN IF SHE TOTALLY CHEATED ON YOU, DON'T THINK THAT A LAYWER WILL GET YOU EVEN WITH HER, THEY WON'T. IT'S JUST A VERY PROFITABLE BUSINESS TO THEM.

Worst law firm ever. Plain and simple, I am $8,000 on the hole to This law firm and my case has progressed nowhere with no end in sight. My lawyer showed up to my first meeting with the lawyer looking hungover and unshaven in days. He has zero expertise and yet his hourly rate is significantly higher than other reputable lawyers. I could not regret my decision more. Bob Margulis is undoubtedly the worse counsel you could find yet he charges like he is Perry Mason or Jose Baez. Absolutely hate this criminal law firm and will never speak a positive word about them

Plan and simple, I am $8,000 and 2 months in and my case has progressed nowhere. We just had our first meeting with the judge and my lawyer showed up looking like he hasn't shaved in weeks. I filled my financial and expense reports, competed my required custody class and yet the petitioner had not completed either and my lawyer in no way took advantage or was not prepared to address anything. Cordell & Cordell cares about one thing, delaying and billing for as much as possible. They are not an advocate for men. Do your research and you will see that their clients are extremely dissatisfied and heir rates are significantly higher than more productive and effective law firms. Could not regret my decision to retain them more.

I agree with the other reviews. This firm will charge and over charge for every item. They will delay and extend your case to keep billing you. I would recommend finding a different firm. They are not for DADs. They are for their own wallets.

They are actually NOT particularly concerned about your case; rather, they are concerned about racking up billable hours as quickly as is humanly possible. In fact, their attorneys allow opposing counsel to run circles around them in the interest of increasing case complexity and slowing down the case, because it means more billable hours for them.

Don't even go for an initial consultation, as they will put on the "legal hard sell" ensuring you that you're at tremendous risk for a very bad outcome unless you place them on retainer and begin immediately. DON'T. Don't, don't, don't. They are preying on fathers' fears and don't care at all about your family, your outcome, etc.

Talk to several alternatives before you retain counsel. Chances are, after talking to multiple options, you won't retain Cordell and Cordell.

After it dawned on me that they were purposely dragging their feet on my case and likely overbilling as well (at a rate of over $10k per month), I actually did what I should have done to begin with, interviewed a number of other alternatives, and switched to another family law specialist in my area. My new attorney immediately went about "fixing" the case problems that Cordell and Cordell had created (and was shaking their head about it the entire time), and is much more helpful and proactive at less than a fourth the cost.

It's clear to me now that C&C has no particular interest in their clients, only in their clients' wallets. STAY AWAY.

This place HAS ROBBED ME. When I complained that my lawyer was inflating the times she was spending on my case, I felt like she started to blackmail me. My lawyer started using scare tactics. She was also creating hurdles to drag my divorce case. I cannot believe how they can get away with this! In the name of the law! Unbelievable! I have lost faith in our judicial system. It is making me believe that our judicial system is set up to allow lawyers take advantage of the unfortunate people who just happen to get divorced or just happen to a problem with the law. I had to end their services…I have already spent $8,000!

This place is a joke. It's full of people who prey on fathers' hopes of getting more time with their kids. I said up front that was my sole purpose for hiring this firm. Months down the road and 10 grand later I am worse off than I was before!!! I could get screwed over by myself, no need to pay someone $250 an hour to screw me! Do yourself and your kids a favor - find another firm.

I had a very simple case of medical bills my ex had filed for contempt and told lawyer I didn't want the stress of going to court and I never received these bills from my ex. In the beginning they told me not to worry and most likely without confirmation of sending them I wouldn't be liable, it all sounded good and I felt at ease until I was assigned an underlawyer, who billed by the hour for reading an email, calling me, going to court, initially that they told me I wouldn't need to appear and called me from courtroom and said I needed to come down to the court house now. then the under attorney went on vacation the week prior to the next court date that I was told I wouldn't have to attend as well, im headed to court this morning 2500.00 out of pocket and exactly where I began. They are only in it for the billable hours, not your best interest.

Stay away. from this firm. Anyone wanting to do a class action lawsuit.. add me to your list. over a year paid $8,000 and never saw a court room.. These charges are from phone calls and paperwork I never saw.

I have spent close to $8,000 to date and have never seen a court room. I have been struggling for 4 years and have had no help, 3 documents and 10 phone calls equate to $8,000.

Stay away they are crooks.. I have had visitation with my daughter less than 10 hours in 4 years. I would be more than glad to join a class Action Law suit.

I hired Anna Ciardi in Pittsburgh because she acted like she could help me but did not when it came to mediation. She tried to pressure me to accept an offer which is unethical.

She wanted me to settle because it appeared she was afraid to go to court. However, in the initial meeting she acted like she could do what I wanted and if I did not like their offer she would take it to court but she tried to pressure me and only listened to me, HER CLIENT, when I got firm with her. Talks a good game in the initial hiring meeting but doesn't follow through. She made and asked irrelevant and inappropriate statements/questions not regarding the case.

She lied to her supervisor on what actually took place when I reported her. So this law firm gave me an ASSOCIATE attorney who was horrible but then when I reported her to the attorney above her who called to see how my experience was he supported her and her lies. BILLED ME $2000 and NOTHING GOOD CAME FROM IT EXCEPT MORE STRESS!!

THEREFORE, BEWARE....she is an attorney and this is a law firm which can not be trusted! THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY, RIP YOU OFF AND DO NOT PROTECT DADS and THIS LAW FIRM CAUSES MORE STRESS TO DAD'S UNDER STRESS ALREADY!!!

Stay away from Cordell and Cordell, they are bunch of thieves with no ethic or principles to work the best interest of their clients. They Money hungry, I wish I never went to them.,

They hire a trainee attorney and she didn't know what to do and she was too weak with the opposing attorney and she forced me to accept very high settlements.

I worked with her for 3 weeks, 3 meeting and one court and in the 3 weeks she billed me for about $18,000.00. Attorney bill is $10k . her Clark billed me for $5k and her paralegal billed me for $2k.

They Screwed me and forced me to accept the opposing attorneys settlements.

I recently separated from my wife. I decided to checkout Cordell based on someone who recommended them. Needless to say, the experience has been disappointed. I closed the account to manage my finances. But I realized right off that there were some discrepancies with how they charge and what their invoices report. I will be calling my credit card company to fight those charges. If that doesn't work, anyone interested in a class action suit? They are causing financial ruin for all families. It has to stop. The only way is to take them to court. We all have the evidence. We can suit for emotional distress, billing practices, mail fraud and false advertising. I used to work for the government and can get us further visibility to stop businesses like these from being in business.

My e-mail is [email protected]

my 6 year old grand daughter could have argued a better case. We were shocked as we sat in the court room and listened as our lawyer allowed the other lawyer rail road our son who is in the military based in Ramstien Germany. The opposing lawyers lied about our sons not ever living in the state of TN, claimed he just filed taxes there to avoid paying income taxes. He made our son look like a fraud. Our son was trying to file for divorce in TN which is his home state of records. (the only place in the country he could file) His wife is living in CO with his two children after she had fled Germany to come to the state to take up with a boyfriend. Our lawyer should have come out swing with statements of fact against the other lawyer and to validate our son ledge right to file for a divorce in TN but she did not. She could have opened with statements of "contrary to what mr belcher is claiming, my client did live in wilson county, he did work for an airline at the Nashville international airport prior to enlisting in the Air Force. Then she could have and should have, went on to explain the STRONG ledge reasons when wilson county had jurisdiction for this case. She did not have any ledge articles to quote, she did not defend his right to file there. She had not properly prepared for this case in any way. It was as if she was lost in a cloud. The judge even made the inappropriate remark "what is this, a man has a girlfriend and wants a quickie divorce" Our lawyer's weak reply was, "no he wants childcare" What!!!! she should have said, "no your honor, she fled Germany to not be married to his man" or No she has a boyfriend, something to bring home the truth, but she did not. She would never take my calls even though my son had given her permission to speak to me about the case. The only time she called me was the day i had told the office staff that I would not be in that day, That is the day she called and left a very condescending and intimidating phone messages. To bad she didn't act that way to the other lawyer, Save that behavior for the opposing lawyer please. However the day we lost the case, she took my call that day!!! too bad she didn't return a call or two before the hearing, maybe we would have won. We are not strangers to divorces but this was the strangest law firm ever. Our case was handed over to a "trainee"

I hired them based on their advertisements for men. They start out with initial interview in their plush office and they give you a guesstimate of what will be the outcome which sounds good but when they have to actually get in court and deal with opposing Attorney she just cowarded down and gave in to all his demands. The woman representing me got me into the worst scenario of my life. Running up the tab and totally unprepared. Told me to accept what the other attorney wanted for temporary hearing or else it would cost me thousands of dollars to stay there all day and get in front of the Judge...I should have gotten in front of the Judge. I am still trying to dig out of the mess. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS.

All the previous post about Cordell & Cordell are correct. It's all about billable hours & in order to get those hours they drag the divorce out any way they can. I paid over $27,000 and I'm still not totally done. Nothing my counsel submitted was used; form 14 ( we must have filled out a dozen of them. They ranged from my ex paying me to me paying her $300. I pay $490 & the funny thing is the opposing counsel's numbers were $500-$600 throughout the entire process), appraisals on the house were not used in determining the value of the house, I was not awarded anywhere close to what I was lead to believe I would get. If I would've just walked away and not even hired an attorney I would be in better shape. As it turned out I lost a ton of personal belongings (atleast $8000), some of them because my attorney didn't list them individually and tried to lump everything together, I have paid down my credit card to $17,000 (if I walked away I would not have this debt), my credit has taken a huge hit (I actually was considering filing bankruptcy because of the debt from them), they changed the rate they charge me per hour once we got into the case but luckily I caught that. I received a nasty gram text from my attorney about me double & triple checking her because I caught things she missed and things she was suppose to do but didn't. There is so much more, please listen to the warnings and just ask around, Google Cordell complaints, do your homework and safe yourself a lot of problems!

STAY away from this law firm! A friend of mine acquired them to help with his divorce. To make a long story short within a six-month period of time his bill after he paid out $7000 was still $22,000 owed!!!!!!!!! To make matters worse he didn't even win his case he still has to give his ex-wife his 401K!!!!! Cordell and Cordell represented him through the whole case and then when it got to be toward the end.... they alerted him that unless he paid down his balance they would have to withdraw!!!!!! this law firm is worse than predatory loan agencies!!!!!!!!

I don't know how this firm is not subject to a total criminal investigation. I did notice how they avoided the mail like the plague. I was charged a total of 2200.00 in the course of 10 days. And that was before they had even received my file from my previous attorney. Those slime balls expected me to believe that the whole firm was meeting once a week to discuss mine as well as other cases and charging each client 175.00 for the supposed collaborative meeting??? Also when they couldn't debit the full amount out of my account they persisted in debiting smaller amounts over and over until the account was empty!!! Oh and i was charged a fee of 375.00 for a welcome letter that was no more than a brochure with no benefit to my particular case at all.
DO NOT CONSIDER THIS FIRM TO BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN SCAM ARTISTS. TELL ALL YOU KNOW , THEY WILL DO NOTHING BUT STRING YOU OUT TILL YOU CANT PAY NO MORE. NOTHING WAS EVER DONE IN MY CASE AT ALL. 2200.00+ CORDELL= ZERO!~!!!