Cordell & Cordell P C

I began working with Cordell & Cordell last fall when my wife and I decided to separateMy attorney, Melinda, helped make the experience go as smoothly and as painlessly as possibleShe was empathetic, encouraging, and looked out for my best interests when I couldn'tShe is an exceptional attorney and I now see her as a trusted friendI would recommend her, and the firm, to anyone going through the same situation

My over five year relationship with Jason Lasser in the Pittsburgh Office (yes, my case is very unique and complex but, finally, nearing closure) has been phenomenal What started as solely a business relationship has grown to the point that he knows how to properly react and address issues on my behalf While he always runs things past me first, it is obvious he and I are in lockstep and he is working and looking out for my best interests - thinking things through fully I would highly recommend Jason to represent any friend of mine that gets into an unfortunate situation like I did

I believe I was misled by firm *** *** personnel August who told me I could expect a 60% property distribution in a divorce in which the other spouse committed marital misconduct When meeting on or before 8/16/2012, I provided *** *** all the details of the misconduct that happened and was assured I'd be victorious in getting the lions share of marital assets at 60%After engaging the firm and paying $10,000+ in fees and retainers, the attorney assigned to my case *** ** *** *** began backstroking on the probability of me getting a 60% distribution and hence the divorce ended up with me only getting a 50% distribution Obviously this specific firm and staff must have some statistical data on marital misconduct cases to backup the assertion that their typical marital misconduct cases result in a 60% asset distribution to their clients It appears that I was provided misleading information simply for the purposes of signing an engagement letter to hire the firm with high expectations and little actual results At 50,feet it seems apparent to me now that the Missouri courts could care less if marital misconduct was evident, the marital estate will generally be divided 50/50, so where does Cordell & Cordell get justification to exclaim 60/asset divisions in cases of marital misconduct? improper advertising
Furthermore, the commandments of the firm were violated in that #states that I will receive timely copies of correspondence created or reviewed in the case I did not receive 100% of such items and often was simply sent an email from *** *** that case correspondence was just received and if I wanted to request copies, the correspondence would then be provided to me Why do I have to request this material information when it is required to be provided to me without any action on my behalf? This exposed me to significant risk HOW was I to defend myself in trial against documents ** would present to me without having any idea of what they might have regarding my personnel files and such? I’ve never seen my personnel files but they were subpoenaed by ** and they had them in their war chest and I was uninformed of what might be presented during deposition and at trial, because I never received copies of the correspondence ** had from Cordell & Cordell staffneglect of legal matters
Furthermore, the case appeared to be grossly mishandled from the start all the way to the finishThere were numerous missteps on my behalf by my attorney that put me and my children in harms way For gods sake, my wife was taken to jail during the trial 6/19/for attempting to bring a loaded pistol into the courtroom without a CCW permit It never occurred for *** *** my attorney to protect me and my children from death with a restraining order or ex parte and she returned home to our residence later that night with unknown intentions as me and my children lie asleep Furthermore, the trial should have continued despite her going to jail, but my attorney just rolled over and volunteered to postpone the trial resulting in yet more concessions of assets from my distribution and yet more legal fees for another day of trial I was under the impression if a spouse fails to show up for divorce trial, they forfeit and the other spouse gets what they want? I was not given this opportunity since the trial was postponed I paid a premium price for substandard legal serviceneglect of legal matters Furthermore, I received a text message from Mr*** 6/19/3:p.mstating “ha ha, you’ll be happy to know everyone at the office has gotten a kick out of that story” breach of confidentiality I’m glad to see the firm had a laugh but never thought about protecting me and my children from a gun carrying spouse with an axe to grind who returned home to us that night NiceI requested information from the firm regarding malpractice insurance carrier and was declined any information by *** *** of Cordell & CordellThe firm failed to be structurally organized in preparing me as a client for deposition by not alerting me to common inquiries like children birthdays, teacher names, coach names, etc… making me stumble and look like an *** when involved in a custody battleinadequate communication
*** *** was engaged as an expert witness to ascertain my income potential and my spouses since his expertise was financial employment as a recruiter, but *** *** only registered/filed him as an expert to ascertain my spouses income and not mine leaving me no defense at the trial in court ***’s opinion was that my income would be $55,per year considering my criminal history, but since Mr*** filed him so narrowly as a witness to the wifes income only, he could not be admitted to defend ** position that my income should be $70,per year and as a result I’m paying more child support than I can afford Furthermore, Mr*** failed to ask Mr*** for his opinion on my income potential during the deposition leaving me defenseless at trial which resulted in an overstatement of my income calculated by **neglect of legal matters Furthermore ** and spouse alleged $20,of unreported income was received by the business but Mr*** never requested specifics regarding who, what, when, how much to support such a ridiculous assertion, but this frivolous amount was used to project my income potential as calculated by ** neglect of legal matters
Mr*** said I could do my business valuation and failed to engage an independent expert witness for valuation of my business and instead, relied upon my finance background in auditing to challenge ** as an impartial witness/expert How can I be an expert at trial attesting to my business valuation, when I’ve never done a business valuation and I’m not independent? That’s ridiculous ** engaged a seasoned CPA professional, and as a result, we had to file for a motion/late entry of an expert *** *** of *** *** *** ** and I incurred additional legal fees to get the judge to allow him as an expert after the submission deadline and defend ** opposition to strike *** only because Mr*** failed in his duties to protect my best interest by listing a qualified expert other than myself It was like expecting a personal injury lawyer (Me) to defend a lawsuit regarding a patent case(my business valuation) neglect of legal matters
Mr*** wanted to subpoena work records from the wifes prior employer *** *** from years ago I advised him that I would provide him with the current address of *** *** since the firm had moved several times but instead of waiting to get the address from me, he sent a subpoena to an address from a Form W-which was undeliverable and I was charged $for several failed attempts to deliver the subpoena to an invalid address more than once I requested a refund and was declinedneglect of legal matters
** *** *** filed a motion to suppress a change in judges and according to Mr*** ** misstated the law and was baseless and hence he would request reimbursement of legal fees to defend since it was baselesss, but Mr*** never refunded me the legal costs to appear in court 11/14/for the matter after its dismissal, despite his assertion I would be fully reimbursed all costs It appears Mr*** confronted ** and advised him of his error, and ** withdrew is motion, but yet I incurred the legal cost without any reimbursement Mr*** let the cat out of the bagneglect of legal matters
In June I went to Mr*** office to sign affidavits for final filings of my statement of assets I signed the sheet which had an attaching excel spreadsheet, but Mr*** changed amounts on the statement after I signed it regarding a wedding ring, household window treatments and other items marking them as both non-marital property and/or significantly undervalued in contrast to what I believed I was filing with the court and he never advised me of his changes until I noticed them after filing with the court He should have alerted me to his changes so that I could have had input When I questioned him on the changes, he said it was just better to go along with ** figures than to argue itI still disagree considering the wedding ring was a replacement paid for with marital funds inadequate communicationIn June 2013, Mr*** advised me that he would subpoena one of the affair partners of my wife *** *** to appear at the trial in order to leverage a settlement by the spouse I told him I agree to the strategy, but Mr*** never followed thru on the plan and did not subpoena Mr*** resulting in more concessions of assets from my pool of propertyneglect of legal matters
The firms software was outdated and not compliant with the data I provided them regarding schedules, appraisals, etcand resulted in me incurring additional legal fees for his assistant to convert/recreate my work for listing as exhibits for trialSpouse received $1,000,000+ in property, stocks, mutual funds, cash, estate property, etc… but her *** ** had zero income despite the income she is and has been receiving over the years from investments and would be earning more after adding liquid assets from her deceased mothers estate Having NO investment income on her Form resulted in me paying more child support than required neglect of legal matters
At the end of trial day on 6/21/we were to divide all bank accounts 50/and I informed Mr*** that the spouse still had $10,in an account to pay for legal fees and since it was still there and unspent I’d get 50% of it It appears that Mr*** then informed ** of the situation which resulted in a specific exclusion of that money from distribution This resulted in a loss of $5,from my assets and directly related to my assertion that Mr*** notified ** of the unspent $ It seems Mr*** chose ** and the respondent over his client interestsbreach of confidentiality neglect of legal matters
I did not waive my rights at deposition and at trial there was no notarized signature on depositions so how is that supposed to be admissible to defend my case at trialMy criminal background report was inadmissible because a certified copy was not requested for court, resulting in my income potential to be overstated because this mishap and *** narrow filing of the expert witness, caused my child support calculation to be overstatedOpposing counsel alleged I had $20,of unreported income that was added to my income potential for child support but *** never requested documented proof of this allegation by my wife who was a 50% business partner My *** was in agreement that my income potential was less than $40,before trial, but we were forced to consent to $70,of income because we had no defense since my background report could not be used nor our expertMy parenting plan states that I am responsible for 55% of college tuition for my children Mr *** never informed me that college tuition was unenforceable in MO and now I have a huge potential liability for college tuition that I oppose to Had I been advised that it was optional and not enforceable, I’d never had agreed to being responsible for it

I used Cordell & Cordell for a Custody case and had a positive experience My attorney, Jason ***, was well educated in Family lawHe provided me with excellent counsel during a long drawn out and unpleasant ordealJason was not only very knowledgeable but he was professional and considerate for all my concernsHe was always quick to address my questions and concerns during a stressful time I would highly recommend using Jason for any family law situation

In the unfortunate situation of going through a divorce in a predominate military community where time sacrificed away from family seems to have been placed not in my favorJonah at Cordell and Cordell, has been nothing but supportive towards my requestsHe has explained options to me, provided sound advice and service when my ex has attempted to delay the process

I worked with the attorneys and staff at the Cordell & Cordell office located in Albany, NY, and I would highly recommend their office to anyone needing family court representation, in particular MsRochelle ***Ms*** represented me in a custody case as well as a support caseShe was very easy to speak with and remained communicative my email, phone and text message throughout the >months that I have been in contact with herShe clearly worked very hard on my case and was very well prepared for the trials with a variety of visual aids and exhibitsShe was well versed in case law and represented my position well in front of a rather difficult judgeI would highly recommend her and the entire office without hesitation

Chris ***, knew the answers to every question I had He gave common sense solutions and ideas to help resolve my situation I finally feel I have an attorney that will be in my corner, and not this hopeless feeling, just because I'm a dad

My attorney Jason was always well preparedHe was very efficient returning all my phone calls and answering all of my questions in a timely mannerHe kept me well informed and up to date during my long divorce processHis assistant, Rachel, was also very helpful and understanding during this timeI am very grateful to have had such an experienced and professional attorney on my side during an extremely stressful time in my lifeI very highly recommend Cordell & Cordell and Jason to anyone going through the same

Lawyer and staff were outstanding I felt very at easy through the entire process Lawyer was steady, even when I wasn't I knew he had my best interests in focus throughout the entire process

Jason Lasser worked as my attorney during my divorce and custody proceedingsI highly recommend Jason for any man that is going through a high-conflict divorce, like I amIt was nice to have legal counsel who was familiar with the local court's rules, regulations, and personnel (hearing officers and judges)More importantly, it was refreshing to work with an attorney who could relate to my fears and frustrations as a father

I would recommend Cordell and Cordell to any man who needs assistance with divorce and everything that goes along with it

I have very good communication with Oliver, my attorney
He gets things done in a timely manner