Kenneth G. Raggio

My child’s father and I had an amicable divorce a couple years ago. Our possession schedule went okay for a while with little changes here and accommodations there working out. I didn’t even really pay attention to the fact that he wasn’t paying what he agreed he would pay. I even took or picked up o...ur child at the father’s work in another county to help him out. It wasn’t long before my agreements and accommodations to the father led to his bullying of me. This eventually led to me saying we should follow the possession schedule that we had agreed to at the time of divorce. Well, he didn’t like that, and he responded with more bullying, filing a pleading seeking to have temporary custody of our child and filing an untruthful 33 point affidavit. So here I am with a lawsuit. I was referred to Ken Raggio by another lawyer who is also listed as a D Magazine Best Lawyer. He looked over the pleadings and affidavit, and said that this was bogus, but that I still had to defend myself. Well 5 court appearances over five months ( the father appealed the denial of his initial requests by the associate judge to the district judge, and lost again) and a final trial, Ken’s advice was borne out: the father was completely denied all relief he sought, my child support was raised almost a thousand dollars a month, and I was awarded $20,000 in my attorneys fees for the father to pay. And he has to pick up and deliver our child at my house, or to our child’s school, which both are in a different county that the father lives in. I didn’t expect to have to hire Ken this year, but I am glad that I did. Not only did he set the table to deny the father’ relief, but he also got sworn testimony submitted in trial showing that the father had lied in filing his federal tax returns by wrongly saying he had paid for day care and was the primary parent. I think the father now knows that I have a strong attorney just in case he is thinking about starting up his bullying again. I highly recommend Ken and his firm.

Earlier this year I went to my doctor for a routine visit. They said my medical insurance was invalid. I called my insurance compnay who told me, oh by the way, he was not an employee. I had trusted my spouse to handle our finances so for the first time I checked out the bank account. I found extr...avegant travel expenses that my spouse had taken a paramour on, because I certainly wasn’t there–or even knew about these trips. My sister works at the Dallas County Courthouse and suggested that I call Ken Raggio and set up an appointment, which I did. My spouse was in town then, but stated he would be going out of the country to work and wouldn’t be back for months. So I made the gut-wretching decision to file then and get him served while he was still here. So there. The case got started. My spouse also hired good lawyers, so we informally exchanged a lot of documents and account information. I concluded that my spouse had wasted hundreds of thousands of our dollars on the paramour and on other things. I felt I was getting, with Ken’s direction, enough information to be able to assess my currrent situation–one I never really expected or wanted to be in. Ken explained to me–several times– how the law would likely be applied to the facts of my case. He kept me focused on what could be, not upon what I wanted things to be. So equipped with this knowledge, I dealt with my spouse to see if we could cut a deal. I contunually asked Ken questions about this or that issue. And he would advise me on my range of options. Eventaully we did get to an agreement, and I got the house that my spouse owned prior to our marriage. But the deal we had made had to be very tightly papered, as I felt my ex-spouse would likely disappear as soon as the divirce decree was signed. So we had a small mountain of deliverables that I got from my spouse at Court when BOTH of us appeared to give testimony to prove up the facts of out agreement. Yes, I wish the divorce had been easier and cheaper. But already just a week or so after the divorce, the house has been transferred to my name, the debt on the house paid off, the money I was to get transferred to my account, and most of the other details have been fulfilled. The retirement order has already been approved as “qualified.” I am grateful that Ken and his firm were there to help me. I feel that I am much better off where I am now, with the divorce over with, than waiting for a multiday trial to come up next year. There would have been a lot of expense to get things ready for mediation and for trial, and I am glas not to have had to do all those steps. I didn’t expect to have to hire Ken this year, but I am glad that I did. I highly recommend Ken and his firm.

I talked to Tom Raggio a couple years ago about filing for divorce and authorized him to do it, but later changed my mind. I can’t get back those two years, but I finally called the Raggio’s again. This time with my and Tom’s agreement, Ken Raggio met with me. Ken was very direct with me in indicat...ing that everything was my choice. He asked this question: are you willing to take the risk that you be in the same place two years from now that you were two years ago? Over a couple of weeks, I realized that our attempts to deal with my spouses alcoholism that cost us many thousand dollars and really hadn’t worked out to make the marriage worthwhile. So reluctantly, So I filed for divorce. Ken suggested that we draw up a complete package to be able to settle the case. This took a lot of work, but Ken was able to attach all the paperwork necessary to resolve the case with my spouse in my case and these other settlement papers attached with the papers that would be served or delivered by the process server to my spouse. With very few changes, this became the deal that my spouse and I agreed on and that the court approved by signing the decree of divorce. I am very pleased with the guidance and comfort that Ken Raggio and the Raggio firm has given to me in finally dealing with my dead marriage, and giving me the encouragement to move on with my life. And I’m sure it will be a happier life! I highly recommend Ken and his firm!