Dunne & Dunne LLP

We have used Steve Smith for over 4 years now. He represents our family and we have been very pleased with his no– nonsense, straight forward yet kind way he has helped us. His knowledge and professionalism is 5 star! I would recommend him to anyone.

I wanted to take the time to write a review, as I was so impressed with Stephen Smith’s representation of me and my custody case in San Diego. I had an exceptionally difficult split with my ex that involved custody over our newborn daughter, multiple police reports, a DVRO, and a move 600 miles away from the scenario. Despite the twists and turns of my ex having a completely FREE attorney and being 12 years older than me, Stephen won my case and kept me sane during a year long custody battle that was nothing short of ugly most of the time. He guided me through two TRO’s, mediation, multiple court appearances, handled in person appearances without me whenever he could so I didn’t have to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, and settled my case out of court completely in my favor. Not only did he get me FULL physical custody of my daughter, but also FULL legal custody, supervised visitation for 6 months at only 6 hours at a time twice a month in northern California, and a child support amount well over what was expected. I was very happy with the results, and a year long emotionally draining nightmare was handled by him with the utmost professionalism and caring demeanor. I can’t imagine having gone through that period of time with another attorney who could navigate all of the random pieces that arose and complicated matters for my case. He reassured me that my life could be normal again and was the deciding factor in this becoming a reality. Given that custody court is one of the most stressful and terrible things that anyone could go through, it is essential to have a good attorney by your side that you can count on and trust… and I feel that Stephen exceeded my expectations when it came to the outcome of my case as well as the support he provided me when everything was falling apart. Thanks to Stephen, my daughter and I were able to stay together full time, move to northern California to have my family’s support during my breakup, and life a peaceful life with all of the drama behind us!

Let me begin by saying, my situation when I contacted Dunne and Dunne, seemed hopeless. My case involved a very complicated custody matter. There was no attorney, that would accept my case. Either because it was too complicated, or because they wanted a huge retainer. So after calling about a couple dozen or so attorneys, I reached Dunne and Dunne.
Stephen Smith, took the time to listen to me,
What had happened, and the circumstances. He began to immediately work on my case, with due diligence. He ended up winning my case! He has been with me every step of the way, and he has followed though with everything he said he would do. Without him, there would have been no way I could have won. He is a very accomplished, sharp, intelligent five star attorney. Thank you Dunne and Dunne! I would highly recommend him to anyone.

My ex wife petitioned to move to Puerto Rico with my kids and it was granted. I was paying $ 2300 per month in child support and getting phone visitations with them twice per week for 30 minutes. I contacted Dunne and Dunne to represent me. First, I met with Mr. Dunne and he assured me that we could fix things. I never saw him again. He never represented me in court nor did I ever have another meeting with him. He assigned a brand new intern to my case, who royally screwed it up.
They charged me $ 5000 for a retainer fee, telling me that they could change everything. I took out a personal loan for this thinking it would be enough and boy, was I wrong. After 2 ½ weeks, their secretary called me and asked me for another $ 5000 (I could only pay another $ 2000– my rent!) since the first retainer fee was eaten up by filing paperwork and going to court (which he did– twice.) The court hearings were each 2 minutes, he continued them for another day, but charged me $ 400 per hour, 3 hour minimum for EACH court appearance ($ 1200), no matter how short it is.
Long story short, my ex-​wife filed false allegations of contempt (which was later dropped), but they couldn’t even defend me for that and I had all the proof in my pocket! I dropped them when I was appointed a lawyer for the contempt. A month later they sent me a bill in the mail for another $ 12,000. They allowed me to not pay it. Needless to say, I now have full custody of my children and my ex-​wife is paying me support. We all have a better life, with no thanks to Dunne and Dunne. Heed my advice and STAY AWAY!!!