Leecraft & Newberry, PC

Joe Newberry has helped our family so much! Custody battles are no fun, and Joe handled this long ordeal with class and in the most organized & thoughtful manner.
Everyone I encountered in the office was so nice, and treats you like family. I hope I never need a family lawyer again, but if I do I will always come here!
Thanks Joe Newberry and Leecraft Law!

I found Leecraft Law firm just off google looking to get things on paper for my child that i had out of wedlock and needed to establish child support and ensure my rights as a father. I worked with Joe Newberry and he explained all the details of what my rights were and explained that i needed to get things on paper otherwise i could potentially have my child moved away by her mother at any moment. We worked out a plan to avoid court granting my childs mother a very significant payment to avoid going to court with the stipulation she didn’t move out of travis county, which i was constantly threatened with. We wrote it up and had my ex served who didn’t like that but it allowed me to not keep getting hit for money over and over and made sure my daughter stayed in Travis county. I got the best expanded visitation for my child and in the end my ex just came to the office and signed, as it was the best deal she could get.
Fast forward a few years later, i had some medical issues and ended up in the hospital while i was with my daughter and had CPS on my case accusing me of negligence and wanting to enforce some crazy things like supervised visitation, access to my medical records, drug tests, you name it– and Joe worked with me to make sure CPS didn’t have that ability to take my child away based on false allegations that we proved were wrong.
I give high marks to Joe and the staff at Leecraft and Newberry, and Joe worked with me on payment as well given my financial situation. Great guy who knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to go toe-​to-​toe with CPS or anyone for that matter.

I retained Leecraft & Newberry PC to prosecute my very contentious divorce case. From the initial client intake and for the duration of the 10 months, the firm’s representation of my interests was outstanding. Joe Newberry ensured my rights were protected and navigated me through a very difficult process. I hired Leecraft & Newberry on a recommendation from a friend. I have been an attorney for 22 years and was very pleased at the caliber and quality of the legal representation I received. I highly recommend this firm and Joe Newberry specifically. Shannon, Joe’s paralegal, is just super as well and a true professional to work with.

I have wanted for years to write a review on judy leecraft but did not have the forum until i realized that Unilocal is not only for restaurants. Many, many years ago as a divorcing father of two i hired judy leecraft because i viewed her as a fighter. and she very well may have been. I never got the chance to find out. Let me explain.
In the very beginning She demanded $ 5000 as a deposit into a trust. Being very naïve and emotional at the time i didnt know any better. I wanted to win the custody battle and i put my then life savings into it. She advised me to file for divorce first which i wanted but due to her lack of urgency, my exwife beat us to it. Now you are probably wondering how and why the lawyer who advised me to do so didnt and so am i. Fast forward to the mediation. I arrive at the scheduled time but she is nowhere to be found. 30 minutes later she arrives very disheveled looking. How can you oversleep?! Very unprofessional. At the mediation leecraft doesnt represent me but takes a back seat and lets me do the talking. The emotionally wrecked father of two who in hindsight didnt know what the f$ck i was doing. Shouldnt she be protecting me from them… and myself? I end up paying for everything and decide to fire her. At the end she supposedly used all of the 5k deposited, down to the penny.
This is after only the mediation. There is no way i used all that money. I was cheated. I ended up hiring a wonderful lawyer who finished my divorce for only a fraction of what i paid leecraft. All ended well no thanks to leecraft. Not all lawyers are sneaky but leecraft sure is. Next time wake up on time for the mediation silly.

Let me start by saying that this rating is a lie, this practice does not deserve even 1 star in my opinion. We retained Ms. Leecraft for my daughter and granddaughter who had fled from a physical, verbal, and emotionally abusive relationship in another state. We are a hard working, honest family. I am a Nurse, and my husband is a Sgt. in the Austin Police Dept. We took our savings to pay Ms. Leecraft for her help, which we were glad to do for our family. There is no way for me to really get across in these few words just how devastating this decision was. The day of the court hearing arrived and we were surprised to find that Judy was not there, nor was going to be there. We were met by two young men who introduced themselves and began to question us about the case. They seemed as clueless as it come to find out they were. We had only about 15 minutes to meet with them before we were called into court. We were up against a family that had unlimited funds, and no morals, and they also had something else. A lawyer who was prepared for court. Their lawyer spent over an hour getting testimony from his family. As the lies and deceit continued our attorneys never challenged or objected to anything being said. I sat there in stunned silence. I could not believe what was happening. They had no idea what they were doing and there were times I wanted to jump up and shout for some help. All four people from his family testified to the judge. My daughter was the only one who got to testify for our side and needless to say she was eaten alive by their attorney. What did our attorneys do, nothing but bumble around looking as incompetent as they were. The judge made his decision without hearing anything from anyone else on our side. It was over before I knew it and my husband and I just sat there not quite knowing what to do. Our precious granddaughter had just been turned over to the man who we knew to be very dangerous. Did the judge get to hear any of this, no. Why, because we had no representation. I walked out of court very mad at our legal system, and then I realized that my anger was directed towards the wrong thing. It was not the system, it was because we had not been properly cared for by the law office of Judy Leecraft. Did the judge hear anything about the investigation by the Department of Children’s Services for alleged sexual assault of a minor (not reported by anyone in our family), did he hear about the 26 incidents of the police being called by my daughter for assault, did he hear about the fact that he was in Juvenile Detention for over a year for attempted murder of his own mother, no, but what the judge did hear from his father was that «he had some normal problems that most teenage boys go through». I didn’t realize that most boys try to kill their mothers. Did he hear the fact that he is bipolar, but does not take his medication, no. Did her hear about the 789 text and phone calls in 1 month after our daughter fled from him, no. Did he hear about the fact that he physically abused my daughter in Cedar Park when they lived here a year before, and that his father immediately flew him back to Tennessee within 4 hours of the incident, no. The town that they lived in was small, and his father a very prominent citizen there would always arrive either before the police were called or moments after. Of course his son was never arrested for abuse. My daughter had no protection there. Did the judge hear that a year before his own mother secretly flew my daughter and granddaughter to Texas to get them away from him because she was afraid for their lives, no. But there we were having to turn the most precious thing in our worlds over to him. Our hearts were broken, the guilt of not protecting her was wrenching. I don’t know why Judy didn’t feel we were important enough for her to show up that day, I guess we never will. To her we were just a paycheck, but it was our lives and our family that were injured beyond repair that day. I believe in Karma, and I hope that maybe someday she will think of us, and maybe feel the slightest bit guilty for turning a child over to a monster. Probably not. I relive that day over and over in my mind, and not a day goes by that I wish we would have retained a different lawyer. I hope that other people have been better treated than we were, I would never want another family to experience the torment we go through even to this day. I know that we cannot be the only ones who have been given bad representation by her firm. If you are out there speak up, people need to know so they can be prepared to find other help if they feel any kind of reservations about the care they are being given before it is too late. For us, that moment is gone and we can never get it back.