Catherine Zamora Cartee

If a zero rating were possible, that's how I would rate this lawyer. I hired Ms. Cartee to represent me in a long term marriage of almost 40 years, based on her reputation in the community. She knew from the beginning it would be complicated because my Ex is a controlling, emotionally and financial...ly abusive, convincing liar who is familiar with the court system. She makes tough sounding statements: "We're going to make him jump through some hoops." "If he lies, he'll have to answer to it." Unfortunately, there is nothing to back up these one liners and the only one jumping through hoops was me. I provided the all of the discovery, including documents requested by Ex's attorney of which he had full access-another way to keep me jumping through hoops. He lied about money and although I provided her with a money trail showing over $100,000 of community property cash that disappeared-he was never held accountable even though she filed documents with the court to prevent "Dissipation of Assets." In truth, all of the motions filed with the court were just a way to pad her bill. When interviewing her, she told me "I charge $300 an hour for my service." I expected her to be much more involved with the case, except more time was spent communicating through her assistant or an associate attorney...what she failed to say was that she also charges $300 an hour for work done by her minions. Since I was paying top rate, I expected that kind of service. I contacted the office when I had new information or needed legal advice, although weeks could go by before getting some sort of reply to a phone call or email...and these were not frivolous topics. There seems to be a horrible lack of communication among her and her staff. The attorney I dealt with the majority of the time appeared to grasp the situation I had been dealing with. I laid the groundwork, with irrefutable evidence, for a court trial to get a "fair and equitable" settlement, but that never happened either. She tries to simplify things that are complicated and will decide what is fair for you, using flattery to "sell" what she wants you to accept, if you don't "buy" it, she will resort to abusive and coercive tactics. I suggest looking elsewhere if you value your time, resources, health and welfare.