Do not recommend
Mary Berdan was a challenge to deal with. She seemed to be unorganized and unreliable at every turn. She did not explain the system well at all causing me to remain confused and frustrated. I was the victim in this case, however it did not feel that way.
She did not communicate with me prior to my hearing after reassuring me that she would. I had no idea what to expect in a face-to-face trial with my stalker/aggressive x-boyfriend that I showed up to but never happened. She called hours later extremely apologetic exclaiming that he plead guilty. She also told me he got a break, which was absolutely not the news I wanted to hear. She made a traumatic situation much more traumatic. I asked for details on why "he got a break" and why things she had said were not happening like she reassured me they would. For example, Mary reassured me he would be serving jail time if he violated the PPO again for an aggravated stalking felony charge. That never happened and now he is on his 4th violation of the PPO. After inquiring what had happened in the previous hearing, she stopped emailing. I hadn't heard back in days. Finally she responded but only with emails containing a couple word responses. I felt like the victum and like I was a burden to her and like getting ANY information was like pulling teeth. It felt like she was using my lack of knowledge for the justice system against me. Finally she said she would not be on my case anymore without explanation. Mary showed a lack of effort, lack of compassion, and lack of tact. This was one of the worst experiences I have gone through and she only made it incredibly worse. She was a court appointed lawyer so maybe this is why she had no interest or care on actually helping me. It was just another day at work for her. I highly recommend requesting a new lawyer/prosecutor if at all possible.
