Kenneth G. Raggio

I hired Ken to represent me in my divorce after interviewing another leading attorney. My spouse was being difficult and we had to drag him down to court for a hearing. Ken Raggio was so much better prepared than the other side that we did very well at that hearing. It set up the situation so tha...t my case could be settled very favorably to me. I highly recommend Ken Raggio and his firm - and I got above-guideline child support.

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.

My husband suddenly filed for divorce last year, and even though we had not been getting along, the filing was a shock to me. My husband sat at our kitchen table and told me that he had drawn up an agreement that was “fair and equitable”. He told me that I would not need an attorney, because he had ...hired an attorney that would be “ours.” He insisted spending more money on attorneys would be a waste. Despite my husband’s reassurance that he was doing the best thing for me and our two young children, I decided to speak to an attorney. Somehow, I was lucky enough to have a friend suggest Raggio and Raggio and I made an appointment. Within 20 minutes of meeting with Ken Raggio, he had already pulled up the information on my house (that my husband and I shared since before the birth of our first daughter), only to learn that I in fact, (and contrary to what I had been told), I was not an owner of the house. Unfortunately, Ken had the duty of showing me the bad news; I was on the deed of trust, but not the deed. So in essence, I was financially responsible for the house, but had no ownership in our home. Additionally, my husband had emptied our bank accounts of over six figures and put it beyond my reach. Essentially, I had nothing. I was left to borrow money and bounce checks in order to take care of the children and pay for child care. He had the house. He took the money. He had more than half a million dollars in retirement; and I did not even have enough money to hire an attorney. Or so I thought... Ken Raggio also informed me that my husband had hired a very aggressive lawyer whose only position was that my husband was “right about everything and I should just agree to his terms because he was being generous” In that so-called generous offer, my husband got his house (after all, it was his separate property) and I got a little bit of savings, got child support, my car, and my retirement. To quote Ken, “this would be the deal you would get in your worst day in court.” And so our divorce started in earnest. Well, we had to set various matters down for a hearing before the court that would get him to move off of his “my way or the highway” view of the divorce and of life in general. So we got temporary orders about my use of the house, about support, use of credit cards, and payment of attorneys and legal expenses. Oh, yeah, we also managed to get my husband’s huge and upcoming bonus frozen so he could not try and hide that from me or our children. Even though it was a contentious and expensive divorce, I am smiling: I got the house with (with the mortgage paid in full) and my children have the stability of staying in the only home they have ever known. Additionally, I got my retirement, a car, and above guideline child support. I have more enthusiasm at work and more time with my children. Moving forward, life is good. I am stronger than I could have ever imagined and I fought for what I knew was right; but, I truly believe that I would not have been able to do so without Ken Raggio and his firm. Only now do I understand that practicing law seems to be a delicate balance of timing, emotional support, stern advice, and knowing the law. Ken Raggio has that delicate balance down to a science. I am extremely grateful to Ken Raggio and his firm for helping me get the courage and resolve to fight for myself and my children, and as Ken said, to get my husband’s “foot off of my neck.” I highly recommend Ken and his firm