Law Offices of Tess Reutzel, LC

"Tess was exactly the legal support I needed through a difficult divorce involving child custody. She and her team provided the warm support I needed, as well as the toughness to go toe-to-toe with a tough opposing lawyer. She helped me navigate a less than transparent ex-wife, and stonewalling on key items of discovery. I remember one conversation between opposing parties where my ex was attacking me and not offering compromise, where Tess stepped in sternly and set the ground rules. I always felt she had my back. She and Anna brought a light to a dark time. They executed a strong, consistent approach to various opposing legal maneuvers, such as my deposition, custody orders, and inappropriate contact between opposing counsel and my son. I felt a lot of care and will recommend Tess to anyone!"

"I highly recommend Tess Reutzel to assist you with any issues related to family law. She is knowledgeable, patience, kind, good listener, and supportive. I am grateful for the help she has provided to me. She explained everything in detail and made the process a better learning experience. I couldn't have made a better choice. Her fees is reasonable and fair. I appreciate her so much. She is my #1 referral to any women who's in need of a great divorce lawyer. She truly cares about you."

"I don’t wish a contentious divorce on anyone but if you do find yourself in one, Tess is the person to go to! She was kind understanding & represented me well in court. It was a horrible time but I’m so glad I had Tess as my lawyer to guide me through it. She went above & beyond my expectations."

"I would not recommend Tess to anyone who needs legal services, especially for family law. I would rate her office 0 stars if I could. I began working with Tess on a custody/visitation change and move away case based off of some good reviews she had and our interactions over the phone for an initial consultation. She explained the process to me, how she would delegate the work from my case to her various employees who have different hourly rates to help cut down on my costs. She also assured me based off of my particular situation that her $4,500 retainer “should be sufficient for the entirety of my case” but if it wasn’t and my retainer got below $1000 then I would be alerted to replenish it. I totally understand that there is no way to know how much work a case will take and therefore no way to give a true estimate, but I appreciated the promised transparency that I would be told when my retainer got too low and then I would be able to choose to replenish it in order to continue receiving services. Needless to say, that did not happen. My case was finished, then weeks later I received my final bill. Not only had they used the entire retainer without any forewarning, but they had also continued working on my case without telling me. Accruing an additional $2500 bill which I was just expected to pay within 30 days, as if that amount of money was no big deal. I find this to be extremely unprofessional and honestly downright thievery because I had no knowledge of the retainer being used completely or the balance they were building up. As if this was not bad enough, there was many other mistakes made by their practice that I can’t overlook: Firstly, I was given misguided legal advice. At the point when I began working with Tess, my daughters dad had not seen her for several months. Tess wrote a visitation agreement that the team was convinced would be signed by his lawyer and they advised me to begin visitation again before he had even actually signed it. I began visitation as they advised and surprise surprise, him and his lawyers had backed out of the deal and now I had put my daughter in the uncomfortable position of seeing her dad with the “hopes” that they would sign the proposed agreement. When her dad refused to sign it, Tess told me to stop visitation again. As a family law office, I would hope that they would take into account the FEELINGS of the children who are involved in these cases. The conversations that have to be had with these kids about seeing their estranged parent again, the emotional trauma that comes with this. And then to advise I just stop visits again? Completely unprofessional and inconsiderate to the families this bad advice affects. Secondly, there were many typos made on important documents to be FILED BY THE COURT, that I had to correct them on and then I was still charged for the time it took for them to fix. Lastly, There were many failures for them to call/email me back in a timely manner. On the day of my final court hearing, they told me I needed to come into the office to be present for the virtual hearing. Well, opposing counsel signed the agreement at the last minute so there was no need to come into the office for the hearing as it had supposedly been settled. No one told me this, I drove 35 minutes to Tess’s office to be present for the hearing that to my knowledge was still supposed to be happening. I’m not a lawyer, as the client I should be advised of these things. Not expected to know. There was not so much as an apology for the inconvenience or the misinformation. There was always so much back and forth from them, they did not seem like they knew what they were doing and obviously they don’t. I would not recommend this law firm to anyone. It was expensive and stressful working with this firm and you and your family deserve much better."

"I've worked with Tess Reutzel and her team numerous times over the past several years. This firm is my go to referral for San Diego family law needs. Ms. Reutzel is responsive, kind, and sympathetic to clients' needs."