Law Office of Brittany Hendrix-Smith

Short story: Hire her. I can honestly say that during the nightmare that was my life at the time, Brittany was incredible.

Long story: My ex and I had a verbal custody agreement in regards to our 5 year old daughter. When I let my ex know I would be moving in with my new partner, he filed an emergency order accusing us of everything he could think of. His emergency order was denied but he still withheld my daughter from me for months. She had never been away from me for more than 24 hours. I really felt that I could not afford an attorney but I hired Brittany under duress after not seeing my daughter for 64 days. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Brittany was clear, thorough, and straight forward. She was kind without being emotional. She worked with me financially in a way no one else would. She was also more affordable than anyone else I spoke with and came highly recommended by a much more costly Attorney’s office. She is a fantastic hearing lawyer and seems to have a good relationship with contra costa family law judges. Brittany not only helped me with a stipulation order that allowed me to see my daughter before the hearing, but I also have 85% custody and my ex will never be able to keep my daughter from me again.

A couple things: I don’t think that you can expect immediate callbacks with any lawyer, and that applies with this office as well. I usually had to call and have an appointment made for 24-48 hours later. It was anxiety inducing at the time but it’s just the reality of not being someone’s only client. However, if it was something that was very time sensitive she made an effort to call me sooner than my appointment time. There were a few things that I felt were super important that she did not, but there’s a reason she’s a lawyer and I’m not and I had to put some trust in her. She did a much better job that I ever could have on my own. And speaking of doing things on your own, having your own information straight and organized goes a long way. Don’t leave everything to your lawyer or something will get missed. I wrote out summaries for her constantly just reminding her of my desired outcome and points I wanted brought up. I paid the extra money to talk to her the day before court hearings to make sure we were on the same page about everything.

All in all, I am so grateful to Brittany and recommended her wholeheartedly.

Hands down Britney is the most professional helpful and understanding lawyer I have ever dealt with she helped With my family case and I highly recommend her

Love this Law office!

*IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW (I'm sorry it is so long but this needs to be known! I'm filing a report with the state bar association so when I tell this story, I'm extremely serious!)* Here we go:

Brittany did not defend us! She didn't call the witness who were at the scene that we asked her to call - or ever even talk to!! When I had to testify she allowed me to be railroaded by the DA who claimed that there was never a female officer at the scene and that I had talked to a white male officer - this was untrue, I spoke with an African American female officer. The defendant in the case asked to be put on the stand (which is his right) but she denied him that right. To be completely honest I believe she didn't care if she lost and was working with the DA and the judge (the DA wasn't even out of law school when the alleged incident occurred a year and a half before charges were filed! And it was the judge's second ever trial - his first one ended in a mistrial! So both the young DA and the newly anointed judge both NEEDED wins) ... she allowed lies to be told and didn't offer a defense against them. When I was on the stand she asked me 2-3 questions sitting at her table hiding behind her computer. She allowed my fiance to be put in jail for abuse because she didn't defend us as we had asked her to - the DA used the scars from my eyebrow piercings (I had them on and off for 20 years and have a few scars) saying they were signs of prior abuse even though I laughed at him in court when he asked me about them - because I didn't even notice them in the picture of me he showed me (my face was slightly red from crying bc of the police - who did not pull us over and who were not called!) Two off duty officers said they saw my fiance "hitting me repeatedly with a closed fist in our car - were we arguing? yes. Did he hit me no! - if he'd hit me I would have had marks on the day they took the pictures or been rendered unconscious. My parents (who we also asked her to call/talk to) were on the scene in minutes and saw me talking to the female cop and also saw that I had NO INJURIES - did she even talk to them? nope! She did NOT prepare for the trial, she always arrived LATE and most of the time when we tried to call her - her voicemail would be full and she would not call back. When I asked for a copy of the police report it took her a month or so to even email it to me! Don't have her represent you! She will likely conspire against you with the opposition - for whatever they offer her! Beware! Thank you for reading as this is a very important and too true story that basically has ruined our lives.

Horrible Horrible Horrible choice of presentation. I watched a friend of mine go through a vicious divorce and this attorney did absolutely nothing to assist him. She had no problem repeatedly taking his money. Thousands of dollars into this case and she stopped responding. She might as well have handed the opposing council the case. She offered no defense to the allegations of the other party which were undocumented and without any evidence. Very unprofessional. She didn't respond to emails or phone calls right up to court dates. I can't even believe she claims she knows Family Law.