Experience
The categories below describe representative experience through current and prior professional work.
Experience includes custody, support, divorce, equitable distribution, Protection From Abuse matters, and other family-law issues where the facts are personal, the emotions are real, and the process still requires careful preparation and steady judgment.
Representative work includes Protection From Abuse matters involving urgent facts, careful documentation, safety concerns, court preparation, and clear communication during a difficult and sensitive process.
Representative work includes breach-of-contract disputes, pleadings, motion practice, legal research, settlement agreements, court appearances, and litigation strategy in civil matters.
A meaningful portion of her current caseload includes landlord-tenant and eviction matters, including Philadelphia and Delaware County-area proceedings. This experience includes lease and notice review, rent-ledger and document organization, hearing preparation, court appearances, negotiation, settlement discussions, and practical questions involving possession and payment disputes.
Work includes selected criminal matters, ARD-related questions, expungement, limited access, Clean Slate issues, and practical guidance for clients trying to understand the court process and the long-term effect of a criminal record.
Work includes immigration-related matters where clients need clear communication, organized documentation, careful filing preparation, and practical guidance through unfamiliar procedures.
Experience includes taxicab medallion transaction work involving Philadelphia Parking Authority requirements, documentation, coordination, and practical attention to the details needed to move transactions forward.
Work has included real estate-related disputes, Quiet Title actions, transaction-adjacent issues, and practical questions about ownership, documentation, and litigation risk.
Her estate-planning work includes drafting and reviewing revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts, and related planning documents. She enjoys the precision of building a document around the client's assets, intended beneficiaries, practical goals, and long-term administration needs.
Experience includes probate and estate litigation matters, including the questions families face after a loss and the disputes that can follow when property, documents, duties, and expectations collide.
Riva's clerkship and judicial internship background includes work connected to Pennsylvania Family Court, the Pennsylvania trial-court system, federal court, live proceedings, legal research, bench memoranda, and judicial opinion drafting.
Her work includes helping clients understand what matters, what can be proven, and which choices may move a case forward without losing sight of the human problem beneath the legal one.
Next step
Professional connections, referrals, and appropriate legal inquiries are welcome. Legal representation is provided only through Law Offices of Spadea & Associates, LLC after firm intake, conflict review, and a written engagement agreement.