Marsh & Maher Richmond Bennison

A colleague advised me to contact a solicitor at mmrb re my owners corporation matters
after eventually making contact i initially wished to meet him either personally or by zoom to discuss the matters in detail and also to meet him

he advised it was not firms policy to have initial conferences with new clients [to me unbelievable from my experience with other legal firms]

at the time i initially thought he was a partner in the firm
i eventually found he was admitted in 2019 so was to me a very junior and inexperienced solicitor

contact with him was rather unusual even in these times in that it was all by email or his personal mobile phone with no contact taking place through the firms office as is normally the case

over a five month period i became increasingly concerned at his advice and lack ot attention given to me

in many cases questions asked of him in my emails were not answered at all and eventually i believed his knowledge and experience with these simple matters was very limited or virtually non existent

finally towards end he simply stopped replying to emails at all

as a result i lodged a complaint through the firms website and received contact from the firms managing partner

he initially did not accept the extent of the problems at all as i believe he failed to look at my file held by the firm in any detail and he claimed someone with his employees background was an experienced solicitor [to me amazing in view of my extensive contact with the legal profession over many years ]

this partner did give me some assistance with pressing matters [previously ignored by his staff member] and advised that the firm no longer wished to act for me in the future meaning i had wasted five months and a very considerable amount of time wasted by me [40-60 hours for which i received no compensation at all] trying to instruct this very junior solicitor employee
i felt his lack of understanding of very simple matters made it very time consuming for me to properly instruct him in the most basic terms so he could understand it [which he rarely seemed to be able to do]

i am unsure of the employees present position with the firm as at the last as far as i know he was still employed [again something i found surprising in view of his complete waste of my time]

in view of his junior and experienced status i was shocked that there seemed to be no supervision of his activities at all

my only consolation was that i was refunded all fees i had paid to the firm by the managing partner

because of what has taken place i am lodging a complaint with the Vict legal services board
i am not sure what ramifications this holds for the firm

based on my experience i certainly would not recommend others to use the legal services of the firm

I would highly recommend Family Law - Lawyer Geraline Whitling who offered sincere support along with her lovely assistant Julie Bould who always was very attentive, thorough and timely with any of my requests and enquires.

‘I found Geraldine and her assistant Julie, to be nothing but completely helpful, accommodating, thorough, truly friendly, and compassionate in their handling of my file. ’

Geraldine provided amazingly efficient and comprehensive service to me and i will not be hesitating to recommend her to family and friends if ever in need. I really couldn't be happier with the service, it was value for money and I'm so glad I chose her over others.

Absolutely disgraceful law firm! Misuse of barristers which only multiplied the bill and a solicitor that really had no idea in family law. Also have been told by other law firms that they are renowned for taking as much money as they can instead of resolving. Keep away!

Will NEVER use these lawyers again. My parents had their will done here so we thought we would continue using them (even after mum said they were hopeless). We copped a 2nd $500 bill with no warning after already paying them 2.5k. (this bill came months afterwards for a silly reason) Initially they told us there would only be the one bill. They threatened us to pay in a vial sounding email from one of the owners. Money hungry lawyers with a nasty attitude i say!

I am extremely disappointed with MMRB. I have been charged 95 000 and still do not have a property settlement or appropriate shared care of my children. I would suggest going to a more experienced firm for any Family Law matters.