Carter Barron Casteel

By far the worst experience I’ve had with an attorney. I’ve been through five family-law attorneys over the past eight years due to county changes, so I have enough experience to compare. Barron has billed me more than four times what I had paid any of my previous attorneys, while providing substa...ntially less effective representation. From the beginning of my case involving my son, Barron repeatedly assured me that my ex-wife was going to jail for repeatedly keeping my child from me. This wasn’t presented as a possibility or a legal argument—he told me, plainly, “She is going to jail.” He said it so many times, I can still hear it in my head. 10+ maybe 15+ times. When it didn’t happen the first time, I was told it would happen the next time. It happened again. Still no jail time. What does that make Barron? What concerned me even more was what happened in court. There was significant evidence that I believed was relevant to my case, including evidence concerning my ex-wife losing her job, p*rnography being shot and sold out of the apartment my child was living, multiple boyfriends and other explicit “content creators” in and out of the home, as well as videos, phone recordings, and other documentation. During more than five hours of questioning, most of this was never raised. When it was my turn to testify, I had prepared a four-page testimony. I was specifically told not to worry about rehearsing it because Barron would walk me through everything on the stand. Instead, I was asked fewer than ten questions, and the questioning was passed to the other side. I spent less than 30 minutes on the stand and, by my estimate, more than 80% of the testimony we had prepared was never covered. I also experienced significant delays and additional expense that I believe could have been avoided. The final hearing was delayed for months because the proper paperwork was not filed in time. That resulted in thousands of dollars in additional attorney fees and travel expenses. The judge ultimately made a ruling in May. Months later, I was still waiting for the court-ordered paperwork from my attorney while continuing to receive invoices. I was eventually served because I had not signed paperwork—and the paperwork I received did not match what the court had actually ordered. I understand that attorneys cannot control everything that happens in court, and I would never blame an attorney simply because a case doesn’t go the way I wanted. My issue is with the representation, communication, bold-faced lies, preparation, billing, delays, and follow-through I personally experienced throughout this case. For the amount of money I was charged, I expected substantially more. In my experience, this was the most expensive and least effective family-law representation I have used. But don’t take my word for it, go let him run up your bill and drag things out!