My experience with Mirabella, Kincaid, Frederick & Mirabella and specifically with Joshua Bedwell,…read moreone of their partners, with my divorce and child My custody proceeding was horrendous. Mr. Bedwell is a $475 per-hour incompetent intermediary who demonstrates no sense of urgency and offers little-to-no thought leadership, advocacy or problem-solving ability. Outlined below are my specific criticisms of Mr. Bedwell.
Mr. Bedwell initially assigned a junior associate, Brad Erdman, to my case who was completely incompetent and an extremely ineffective communicator, resulting in wasted time and fees. Ultimately, I had to insist that Mr. Erdman be removed from my case.
Mr. Bedwell did not understand the process and protocols for filing a petition for parenting time when an order of protection was in place. Ultimately, he needed to consult my criminal attorney to determine the path forward. As a divorce attorney, he should have known the process & protocols and suggested that I immediately pursue a petition rather than simply requesting parenting time from my ex-wife through her attorney, which was not likely to result in any action or progress. His lack of understanding and proactive, critical thinking resulted in months of wasted time and delays in me seeing my children.
Mr. Bedwell completely mishandled the guardian et litem and reunification process with my children. He did not perform due diligence or challenge the reunification therapist who was assigned to my case. The reunification therapist had very limited availability, was not located anywhere near my or my ex-wife's residence, and generally has a reputation of being difficult to work with, including not following court orders, which is exactly what happened. A mid-August court order specified that the intake meetings for me, my ex-wife and my children were to be scheduled with the reunification therapist within 7 days of the order. It took me 5 weeks to see the reunification therapist for my intake meeting at which time I found out that my children's intake meetings had not even been scheduled. Mr. Bedwell did not appropriately advocate for me when this delay occurred. He refused to insist, or even ask, that the reunification therapist accommodate an earlier date to see my children for their intake meetings given that her office clearly did not follow the court order. I also asked Mr. Bedwell whether we should seek to have a new reunification therapist assigned and received no response. When I consulted other attorneys outside his practice, they unanimously suggested immediately filing a petition for a reunification therapist and indicated that they would have never agreed to the reunification therapist that was assigned. Mr. Bedwell's incompetency and lack of advocacy resulted in months of delays in my seeing my children, not to mention wasted fees that I paid his firm, the guardian et litem and the reunification therapist.
Mr. Bedwell lacked any financial acumen. His initial interim financial support proposal to my wife was completely nonsensical and substantially higher than the amount ultimately agreed upon after my review and revisions.
An attorney's role, especially one at Mr. Bedwell's hourly rate, is to be a thought leader and problem solver. He was neither. On more than one occasion, he simply passed along information without providing any insight or recommendation on how to proceed to further my interests. I ended up doing nearly all of the critical and strategic thinking in my case.
