Montgomery County Circuit Court — Local services in Rockville

Start with the Pro: There are some good employees that are professional and do their job great. The sheriffs that sit in court are good and professional. The clerks in the family division have been extremely helpful and remain neutral. The building is really clean.

I want to give a Big HUGE Shout out to Judge Jennifer Fairfax as she is the ONLY Judge I had that actually looked at the facts and did her due diligence with NO bias. PLEASE KEEP HER IN SEAT, SHE IS GREAT!! I’m 100% sure if I had the second lawyer who I have now which he is amazing and if I had Judge Fairfax for my appeal hearing, I would have had a FAIR hearing. Instead I had a Judge who was falling asleep during multiple people’s hearings, my character is tarnished, I’m being alienated from my children and I’m in over $40k in legal fees due to something that never happened. The worse part is the fact I have hard evidence SUBPOENAED DIRECTLY from Montgomery County Police but it wasn’t accepted by the Judge I had in my appeal hearing because my first lawyer never submitted it for discovery!!

Now for the Cons: I paid the Sheriffs Office $60 to get an opposing party served. I was told they made 3 or 4 attempts but was unsuccessful in serving the person so I will get half my money back. I never received the money. Which also resulted in my filing that I spent money on as well to be dropped due to dead line.

There needs to be some type of review or change to the Family Law Section. There are some who are good at their job and there are others who are a nightmare. In my case I dealt with another situation of a particular staff automatically taking a side based off hearsay that never existed along with no factual record of anything to prove it, only pictures with No Date Or Time Stamp. There are so many red flags and extremely questionable information the staff received; However, did zero due diligence/critical thinking in getting factual evidence. I had to repeat information numerous times including delivering a thumb drive to the court house because the staff claimed they could not open a drop box link. I have not received that thumb drive back and have no clue where it...

A week after I found a "no signature required" independent adoption notice in the gravel of my rental home I did not live at and not home on reccord, I jumped on a plane to Rockville for court. I just recently was honorably discharged from the military at 80% disability. The expensive lawyer the petitioner hired interacted with the judge like they were drinking buddies. Annoyed that I even showed up they proceeded to punish me together. The judge ignored my silly served "contempt for denial of visitation" when I revealed it's existence, accepted invalid consent documents as evidence, made unsubstantiated remarks about me, and disabled my ability to present any evidence due to my failure to respond to not received/unlawfully served documents.

What was supposed to be a question of my consent (obviously NO), turned into a bashing session. My valid arguments were just ignored, witnesses were permitted to skip damaging questions without objection, and unsubstantiated invalidation was never challenged. Drowning in my tears at this emotional slaughter house the Judge ended with "It is so sad you did not express any loving experiences with your son" and ruled "In my 30 years this is a first for me, I rule Consent with non-consent" and walked away. Sounded illegal and probably was. The judgement on paper was completely changed after based on me never making contact with my son, when my ex-wife was served my complaint "contempt for denial of visitation", I was not in contempt for anything, and all avenues of contact were denied to me.

I was so naive to think blatant unlawful practice like that couldn't be possible in my country. The judge at least touched his temple when I expressed my struggles juggling deployment and fighting for my son. I suppose it could have been worse like him pointing and laughing at me while burning...

Absolutely Horrible Experience – Avoid at All Costs

I’m genuinely shocked that the cafeteria inside the Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville is allowed to operate in its current state. I spent nearly $25 on what turned out to be some of the worst food I’ve had in years. While it looked somewhat appetizing at first glance (likely because I was extremely hungry), the experience quickly went downhill.

After waiting in line, I finally sat down only to find that my food was completely cold and tasted awful. I could barely get through a few bites before feeling nauseated—and unfortunately, I ended up getting sick shortly afterward. This made an already stressful day at court significantly worse.

It’s unacceptable that this cafeteria is serving such low-quality food to courthouse staff, visitors, and individuals going through legal proceedings. The court should be ashamed to offer—or even allow—the sale of food that is this poorly prepared and unsafe. I’m incredibly disappointed and hope immediate changes are made for the health and dignity of everyone walking through...