Cara Lynn Santosuosso

I hired Ms. Santosuosso to handle my divorce because her firm had experience with handling high-conflict, domestic abuse cases. Unfortunately, I did not feel that she did much to manage the conflict in my divorce, and she let my ex-husband and his far less experienced attorney run the show. She point...ed out several times that it was futile to spend much time on my case, as it did not involve much in the way of finances and assets, and she usually handles cases that do -- "I have another client right now who is seeking over $1 million from her husband," she said once. I had to spend a lot of time doing research to document fraud committed by my ex-husband that I was being forced to pay for, which I really felt should have been her responsibility -- she didn't even bother providing the documentation to the court. This made me feel like she did not consider me worth her time, and she was quick to move on from my case. I may not have been seeking millions, but the little amount I was seeking was all I had in the world. Against my wishes, she attempted to seek spousal support, which caused a lot of unnecessary strife (and was pointless, as he was unemployed and would have refused to pay it, anyway). My ex-husband disobeyed several court orders and refused to file any of the required information on his finances, employment, assets, etc. Nothing was done about this, aside from filing one contempt motion which the court just ignored. There were never consequences for my ex-husband's actions or refusal to respond to requests for information. In the end, a settlement was rushed to "get it over with." There were damages my ex-husband had to pay, but he only agreed to a lesser figure, to be paid payments in two installments, with one half due a month after the divorce, and another due 6 months post-divorce. I specifically asked for the payments to be due immediately, knowing he would never pay it under this arrangement, and because I wanted no reason for him to contact me later. For the first payment, he deducted bogus "damages" he concocted, and only paid about half of what was due. He never paid the second payment. He also never returned my personal property, as he agreed to in the settlement. The settlement held my ex-husband responsible for all marital debt, including his unpaid taxes, but I ended up paying all of it because he is good at hiding from the IRS and creditors. Nearly a decade later, I am just now getting out from under all of that. He did all of this to cause trouble, delay things and force me to pay more money to fight him -- and Cara did nothing to put a stop to any of it. She let him and his sloppy attorney bully me, and they blatantly ignored court orders. Cara also did not respond to my requests to take action for the property and payments I never received. Addressing my prediction and concern that this would happen as the case was pending, she advised me to file appeals later, which I did not not want to do -- I wanted zero contact with this person as I worked to rebuild my life from ground zero. I desperately needed a strong, supportive advocate at this stage of my life, but Cara was not that person. I am sure the wisdom of her experience told her not to react to or take action on every little thing my abusive ex-husband did, knowing I had no financial resources to fight any of it -- but she could have at least asked the court to acknowledge some of it and intervene. This contributes to an ineffective justice system, especially for abuse survivors. I see that Cara responds to negative reviews here. I hope she takes what I have said to heart, and that she will be a stronger advocate for women in abusive situations going forward.

Cara was responsive and answered many of my questions. Although, I did feel as if she often defended the opposing counsel denying a father access to his child, and ORC section 3109.042, that claims an unmarried father has no rights to his child. What is the correlation? At our pretrial hearing, she o...nly asked for the minimal, supervised visitation to a child who is not a protected person and did not ask for anything to help me gain insight into my sons life, his welfare, his health, his safety, such as Our family wizard or Talking parents. I spent $3,000 with Cara and she walked in the middle of a custody case. She never cared, and doesn’t seem to understand the bias, and discrimination behind a father not having rights, parenting time, decision making to a child that is genetically and biologically proved to be his. If only Juvenile court reviewed motions for Father rights and a father wanting to meet his child, as quickly as they review attorney withdrawal motions, our society would be a better place. I’m an advocate for 50/50 parenting. I pray this system improves for the next father who wants access to his child, but cannot because he wasn’t married (as if that makes fathers any less of a parent), or for my son that is subject to this same bias and discrimination. These lawyers and courts are taking peoples hard earned money in order for you to have rights and parenting time to your own child. It’s a ripoff and a scam!

Extremely disappointed and heartbroken by the way this situation was handled. Cara’s actions have had a devastating impact on my child’s life, and it’s disturbing that someone in her position would coach a mother on how to keep a parent out of their child's life. Her communication was cold, dismissiv...e, and dripping with arrogance. She carries herself like she's above everyone in the room, and it shows. Cara knows the law well—but she uses that knowledge to manipulate it pursposefully. She has no issue throwing irrelevant or outright false claims into a case, even after they've been proven untrue with video evidence, just to plant ideas in the magistrate’s or judge’s head. It’s a calculated, underhanded strategy, and it’s not about justice—it’s about control. She’ll likely respond to this review with a denial or polished rebuttal—that’s what she does. But anyone dealing with her should keep that in mind. If she’s on the other side, you better be ready to fight—and fight her just as hard and dirty as she fights you. She doesn't play fair, and her ego is sky-high. No amount of money will undo the harm caused or protect someone from the weight of their actions. And no, Cara—you won’t keep me from being in my childs life. Enjoy your special place in the afterlife.

Hired Cara, for her so called experience in child custody. I had a slam dunk case, for me to get full custody of both my children. Instead Cara, thought in her best interest, that I get my son, and my ex gets my daughter. Who in their rite mind would do such a hainass act. Also Cara, has a huge ego.... It’s her way or the highway. She is very argumentative & sarcastic. If you ask Cara that you want something done, she will do the complete opposite. She was more attentive to secondary things, than our children. Ie family possessions etc. Cara, also will always get your hopes up, as her favorite word is STAY TUNED. I did for 14 months & $ 20,000 later. With ABSOLUTELY no results.

Hired for divorce which later domestic situation occured. She rarely returned calls in a timely fashion. She was not a person of her word as if when she said she would call back at a certain day or time she did not follow through. She was lackluster in court at best and the sentencing showed this for... she was not an advocate for her client. She did not make sure her client understood all that he needed and she made some poor judgementy calls that got him in further trouble. It was a awful experience ...