Dan W.
1/5
Let me share my experience, so you'd decide if you should go with this mediator. I'm going to list just the facts that happened to me.
1) At the mediation, there was NO MEDIATION - according to Anouk, no matter what we were ready to settle for - everything should be according to the law.She was denying everything that was not according to the book. So, what is the point of that so-called "mediation"?
2) She took the side of the female party and directed all mediation process to the best of her interest. Even when my ex was ready to give back to me the things that belonged to me, Anouk told her that she does not have to do so, unless I compromise on something in exchange.
3) Anouk kept on telling how cheap her services are. In fact, it costed us sooooo much with her endless mediation sessions, where she put us to fight by not allowing us to make arrangements, we both were OK with. She did it just because of she felt so, and, I guess, it was also about her $$$ interest.
4) Her amicable agreement costed us a fortune. Initial price for a copy-paste with small adjustments related to our case 20 pages long document was $1500+tax. Other lawyers charge like half of that price. We ended up with like 10h of "mediation time" to clarify all grey areas of the agreement, e.g. $1100+tax extra. The total so far is $2600+tax for a 20-page long document. When my lawyer was reviewing the document, she kept on asking if the person, who wrote this document, was really a lawyer because my lawyer had found so many mistakes in it. It costed me another ~$3000 for my lawyer to bring the document up to the law.
5) Anouk brings up so many unnecessary details that TWO other independent lawyers found rather unusual or non-standard for those type of agreements. Why did she ask us to do so? Again, she gets more time to bill you.
6) This one is outrageous: I made a statement that my ex restricts our kid's communication with my family, including me. Anouk called the child to testify against her mother IN FRONT of her mother. Moreover, the child was in the mother's custody at that time, i.e. the child was put in the situation to testify against her mother being physically next to her! How professional is that? That should be addressed by the bar.
7) She promised to do certain things at the beginning just to please me and ensure that I do not run away from her. Later, she completely denied ever making those promises. How can you trust this person?
8) She has no idea about accounting, yet kept on insisting on producing documents that make NO SENSE and CANNOT be produced.After I consulted with a professional (it costed me extra $$$) and explained to her why the documents cannot be produced, she quietly backed off and never brought the matter up since.
9) She is so rude towards other lawyers' opinion. I mentioned a few times that my lawyer had completely different opinion on the matter. Right away, Anouk jumped the gun and asked me to give her my lawyer's name and phone number, so she could call and harass her. Thinking back, I should have let her talk to my lawyer - it would have ended the misery of my "mediation" with Anouk right away.
10) She sent me the bill of another couple with all their personal information, and sent to that couple my bill with our personal information. How professional is that?
11) She lost our documents and claimed that she never received them. We had to re-order the documents, so we wasted lots of time.
I can go on and on... I believe I said enough to form your opinion... I should have never-ever hired her. Do not get fooled like me by the positive reviews. This review is REAL.
