Benjamin Carl Kaasa

I was gravely disappointed in his overall performance concerning his representation during my divorce. There were circumstances, in this particular case, of an unusual nature that could have made a for a less painful end if he would have had the fortitude to actually pursue on my behalf. From the ver...y beginning, he displayed an obvious condescending and arrogant demeanor toward me. One of several examples, on 11/22/19 , I had asked him for a ball park figure regarding the possibility, if this case went trial. His reply, “a ton of money”, or “a truck full of money” and on further occasions when I made this same inquiry…..as if I were incapable of understanding. That same afternoon, I asked about scheduling a consultation before the first scheduled FENE meeting….never got a response. Later, I dropped off some requested documents, inquired about the importance of some that I couldn’t get and asked about others that I didn’t include…..he just shrugged his shoulders giving me the impression that they weren’t actually that necessary. I also reminded him about the pre-FENE consultation previously requested…..again no response. Again, dropped off more documents that suddenly became important from the last time he requested info….hummm… and we finally had our pre-FENE consultation due to my constant urging. I asked him about my wife's income and bank account info…if he had requested this disclosure info. His exact response, “I hadn’t had time to ask for it”.....the day before the meeting? Am I not paying him to collect all info, that I have been asked to provide? Luckily, FENE got rescheduled. This should have given him more than enough time to collect the same kind of info that was required of me…..which he didn’t pursue. He still hadn’t requested it, until the day before the 2nd FENE, in an e-mail to opposing attorney. I again asked him about it that morning at the meeting, his response, "Her attorney says she has nothing and that is good enough for me”…..seriously? My wife had been on her own for three years. Numerous times he told me that my income wasn’t a factor; because my wife had been self sufficient for the past three years without my financial help. He also told me my home, which was purchased in 1994, could be considered non-marital. I asked about the validity of this, and his exact response, “I’m not worried about it” and just disregarded my inquiry. Seriously?.. he obviously didn’t do his homework as it was a completely different set of circumstances when I showed up at the 02/11/20 FENE meeting. During this entire process, he was unforthcoming and almost to the point of being blatantly misleading …all the way up to the morning of the 2nd scheduled FENE meeting. His efforts in representing me were lame and lackadaisical with his obvious attitude being, that any judgments or agreements against me were unimportant, as he had my retainer in hand, why try to actually represent his client for a more favorable and fair outcome? During the FENE meeting, he was shiftless and unhelpful. I felt he had made some kind of a “deal” with the opposing attorney before I even arrived....for it sure seemed that way, as he starting back peddling on everything he had previously told me about her access to my income, home equity values, personal property be it marital or non-marital, etc. He should have scheduled a consultation sometime before, to prepare me for these so called “changes” from his original dialogue/findings? Also, flashing around a Family Law text book made me sadly realize his level of incompetence, especially when he couldn’t even correctly formalize the equity in my home that she might be entitled…..he relied on her attorney's numbers without even fact checking. I certainly wouldn’t recommend Benjamin Kaasa representing on any legal matter.

The short version is be careful hiring Mr. Kaasa. He can do good work when you are able to micromanage your case. I had an emergency situation when I hired him and I do believe he handled it quite well. But once it moved into negotiations of parenting time and then child support, with me being in a d...ifferent state for work, things started not going as well. His communication skills leave something to be desired. He did not regularly keep me informed on some of his actions, he used a lot of legal jargon and did not explain what he meant very well, Often I have to ask questions or request information multiple times before he would address my concerns. He did not follow instructions in regard to retrieving important information for me to make a decision, among other things, in a timely fashion. There was an incident where the other party made a threat, broke the court orders and then lied about it to the courts and he said there was no legal ramifications for those actions. I am not sure what Ben said was true but at the very least it seemed odd to me. He also seemed to have an aversion to going to court, which he was not able to explain very well to me. I did not have the time nor the money to invest into Ben Kaasa, especially since I work in a different state, so he did not work well for my case.