Celia Harned Celia Harned - State Appointed Attorney Incompetent Practice/ Questionable Charging Denver, Colorado

This is the most clueless "attorney" I have come across ever! I was appointed Celia Harned by the Denver courts for a second time. I was under the impression that a family should be able to choose the CFI they wanted. However, though I objected with the judge, he assigned her again to my case. I don't have any idea why I was refused another CFI to my case after my initial experience with Celia Harned. As for my opinion, I believe there are partnerships between her and a few select judges in the Denver courts. Based on my experience with Celia Harned, I know she would not make it as an attorney on her own which explains why she has been practicing for over twenty-five years working solely as a Child and Family Investigator for the Denver court system. This was evidenced by the misspellings, fragments and run-on sentences in her final draft to the court. Had the matter not been as serious as my family case, her draft was quintessential material for a comedy skit. To be blunt, as I have seen on many sites and this site as well, she is simply incompetent as a practicing attorney. As a CFI one must be objective in reporting and this "attorney" violated tenant. Important details were left out of the report that had critical implications in the final decision. And instead of getting custody of my child 100% of the time based on the strong facts presented to Celia by me, I instead was relegated to a much lesser parenting time decision! She misrepresented the facts and biased the reporting in such a way, it appeared she wrote it solely from the perspective of the other parent.

On the day of both my hearing I have had under this attorney, she TWICE misrepresented the facts! My son is in a better place today because I refused to succumb to this attorney's "pen-whipping" of me. But she did not do my any favors. I just made sure the second time around,  I was heavily documented.

In addition, I was final billed by Celia and there were MANY errors in the charges. For one, the total charges were incorrect. I was charged the full rate for work done by her assistant! And the total hours billed were noticeably overstated. Because of these issues, I simply asked Celia for the phone records so that I could verify the billed hours for the phone call and she refused! I am insisting on the phone records and currently is in the process of trying to obtain verification for the charges for which I believe to be FRAUDULENT! I want to make people aware of this as we assume, someone such as an attorney, is performing their duties in an ethical manner. I am led to believe this is not the case with Celia Harned. It deeply concerns me of the many families who turn to the courts, emotionally distraught and financially strapped, expecting justice based on the preponderance of the facts just to be victims of subjective and biased reporting by Celia. And to add insult to injury receiving a final bill with noticeably overstated charges. I have refused to pay these overstated charges and is insisting that she provide me with the phone records which will reveal the actual amount of time spent talking to witnesses.

I have also decided to file a formal complaint with the Colorado State Bar Association. Celia Harned is giving the the practice of law and her fellow cohorts a very bad name and brings disgrace to the profession. For anyone else whose path this "attorney" has crossed and caused harm to, I am providing for you her state license to also file your formal complaint.

Celia Harned's license number is the following:
#16516

Good luck to you and your loved ones!