Carla Grace Holste

I hired Carla as my divorce attorney in what proved to be a difficult custody battle. She has a unique personality but I felt like she was well respected in the legal community because of research I had done on her and Carson and Coil. I also liked that she was recognized as a so called "Super Lawye...r", something that is seemingly difficult to obtain. I didn't know anyone in real life in Jefferson City who divorced or anyone who even required an attorney. I know this was a first for me as well. So I went in rather naive and blind. I found her at our first meeting to be very blunt and firm, which I felt I needed. She acted as though she wouldn't take any nonsense from my soon to be ex or his attorney. But I have to say, once the process started and papers filed, I was really frustrated with the lack of communication, from herself and her assistant Darlene. When I would call or email for updates, I got very short responses. When my case went before the judge for a temporary custody hearing, I felt completely unaware of the process and felt like I was being a burden when I asked. Further, after that hearing (that we lost), I had to call her to inquire more about the judge's ruling after I read about it on our state's court website and when I called her on it, she didn't apologize for not being more forthcoming, even though the part she neglected to tell me related to the financial support of my children. Months went on with no new developments and while I know that is typical, I was always the one calling her to ask. My ex's attorney would cc him in all correspondence, while Carla did not. When we were negotiating settlement, I would email politely to ask if we were getting anywhere and she responded with "we're getting there" and no more details. And something I also thought interesting - in the beginning of this ordeal, I moved out of our home with my kids but before doing to I explicitly asked Carla if I was within my legal rights to do so and she said yes. Well, come to find out, I violated some statute in doing so and my ex's attorney was all too quick to include it in court documents and bring it up at trial. And yes, we went to trial and I paid upwards of $15k total. In summary though, if you have a difficult case and you need to feel like you are being well communicated with, I would not choose Carla. Granted, I got the outcome I wanted, but it was only because of my ex's actions during proceedings not because Carla was a killer trial lawyer.