Constantin Zhukovsky

I was referred to Constantine by my friend whom Constantine helped to get out from very unhappy marriage. When I retained Constantine I thought my own case should not have been too complicated or too difficult because in our marriage, we had no children, only division of community property. Little di...d I know. I got married 2004, my marriage ended in 2007, when my spouse allegedly went to visit her ailing mother and for the next 10 years of our marriage, she stayed for 5 years out of country traveling on my expense and spending her time mostly at various resorts. Then I filed for divorce and my case started. My ex spouse claimed being married for 15 years and thus being entitled to life time spousal support, which she immediately requested from the Court. On top of support, my ex also wanted to keep all proceeds from the sale of family home. So, that was my future, life time spousal support and all sales proceeds kept by ex. I also was royally allowed to pay credit cards debts, mostly incurred by my "virtual" spouse, who lived at her pleasure. Constantine is very organized, attentive to details and always works on case, even if the work eats into his personal time. He kept me (client) very organized and he made me to participate in each and every step on this painful process. I was informed of each and every details, I was consulted on every and every step and participated in each decision. His approach to work includes and encourages client's participation, which is very beneficial, because it give lay person sense of security and control over legal matters most of them being unfamiliar and very intimidating. I also need to say, that I got a lot of psychological support during this dark period of my life, which helped me to stay calm and focused on legal proceedings. We settled out-of-court. No spousal support, some of the community property funds in division. I got my life back and I have clean slate to start. My life and my freedom are unabated, which is very important to me. If you come to understanding that your family life is moving toward the dead end, I would highly recommend to consult Constantine, because his experience and hands-on approach would literally get you saved years of your life, thousand of dollars and would give you peace of heart and end of your nightmare.

I will refrain from going into deep details of my case for several reasons. Largely because that would involve me disclosing very unpleasant details about my former spouse, which I’m not willing to do. My painful marriage and its aftermath has stripped me of many things, however basic human decency a...nd dignity were not among them and that is in part because I chose Constantine as my attorney. My marriage was less than five years, no kids, no mortgage. Potentially simple divorce that was made rather complicated by my ex and her family. Rather than just peacefully setting our affairs in order and going our separate ways my wife decided to slap me with a demand for spousal support, demanding a ridiculous and unprecedented amount of money she clearly knew I did not have. I spent the last two years of our marriage supporting myself, my wife and her rather expensive tastes and habits and by the time we separated was practically broke. None of that mattered to my ex who simply decided that milking me for as long as possible was a much better way of financial "stability" rather than making an effort to take control of her life. I heard about Constantin and his various success stories through a grapevine and by the time I came to see him I was ready to do everything within the boundaries of the law to fight back. At that point I no longer cared how much I can potentially hurt myself or the other party in the process. I was blinded with anger and was fixated on revenge rather than justice. If I went to someone with less experience, less desire for fairness and justice, I am sure I would have potentially made mistakes that I would regret for years to come. Not only from financial, but also from human standpoint. To make the story short: Constantin patiently listened to my story and explained to me all my options, potential outcomes and legal fees right there and then. No hidden stuff, no gimmicks, no BS. After the initial consultation that lasted about two hours, I left Constantin’s office with a clear head and a solid plan that would serve the best interest of everyone involved starting with me. Throughout the case Constantine not only provided legal counsel and help, but actually took time to give me a call now and then simply to see how I was doing and provided abundant moral and emotional support. The time between when we filed court paperwork and the time we settled was approximately three month. Through Constantin’s outstanding negotiation skills, we came up with the solution which both parties could live with. I got away with a lump sum consisting roughly of one fifth of what my ex-wife was originally asking. Now, for all of you ladies out there writing blood-chilling horrifying reviews of Constantin being a woman-hating chauvinist and so on and so forth, here is the fact: my ex-wife who has never seen or personally communicated with Mr. Zhukovskiy prior to our court date, was so impressed with Constantin’s professional and humane approach that she asked for his card and considers using him as a legal counsel on professional matters. Enough said.

Constantine held me through painful longtime marriage divorce. My previous lawyer did not have enough of courage, experience, and confidence to withstand unreasonable demands and attacks on me. When I full of frustration came to Constantine office my now ex-wife demanded 50% of what I was making as a... spousal support indefinitely, plus 100% custody of our child and child support, plus $30k of her attorneys fee. Constantine took the situation under the control and eventually we reached agreement. The aftermath is: no lifetime court jurisdiction; I am paying to my ex-wife 25% of what I am making now for the next 3 years; no child support; I am paying $7K of her attorneys fee; I highly recommend Constantine!

Despite having the simplest case one can possibly imagine (no minors, no real estate, no businesses, only earned incomes, and liquid assets), it turned into 3.5 year ordeal costing both sides over 200K of legal fees. Such is life when one side acts irrationally (and cycles through three attorneys, ne...xt more vicious and unscrupulous than a previous one) and takes you hostage in the process. Extremely upset and frustrated with my first inept and indifferent attorney, I asked my social network connections to send me references to family attorneys which they had been happy with. To my surprise I got almost universal response along the lines: “I can not honestly recommend my attorney” with degree of dissatisfaction varying from “mediocre” to “mindless screw-up”. But then, I got a fateful breakthrough : I met Constantine Zhukovsky ! After the first 15 minutes, my desperation was transformed into a hope and awe. That initial impression did not disappoint: the next 6 months of working with him on driving my case to a swift and satisfying closure only reinforced my observation that Mr. Zhukovsky is both a professional and a human being in a class of his own. Not only he has superb knowledge of the Family Code, precedents, and procedural intricacies, not only he is very proactive with choosing and executing optimal legal strategies, but most of all he CARES about his clients, and he strives to leverage awkward, clumsy and morally inept family court system in order to solve problems and conflicts created by a painful relationship break in just and fair manner, not only in legal, but also in moral way. For my specific situation Mr. Zhukovsky found a tradeoff which maximized long-term peace of mind for me, and managed to convince the opposing side that it is satisfactory solution for them as well. (using sound (not only logically but also psychologically) reasoning and smart procedural tactics) He also managed to accomplish that in as little time and legal fees as was practical, by avoiding an impending trial and driving the case to a settlement. As opposed to huge amount of legal fees generated by my previous attorney and all the experts that the opposing side forced us to employ, I felt that every dollar spent on Mr. Zhukovsky’s services. Given that my marriage was of “long duration” (over 10 years), if my case was decided via a court trial I would have ended up having to pay life-long spousal support and, even more troublesome, being vulnerable to a possibility of ongoing future legal harassment by my ex- and her monstrous attorney (because the court would have had “indefinite jurisdiction” over my case). Mr. Zhukovsky explained to me all the dangers and legal pitfalls which might haunt me for the rest of my life, and suggested a strategy which would protect me from these risks. He then brilliantly executed on this strategy leaving me 100% satisfied with both the process and the result. The bottom line is: if (G-d forbid) anyone approaches me asking for a family attorney recommendation, I can wholeheartedly recommend Mr. Zhukovsky as their best bet.

Before I met Constantine I was represented by different attorney, who basically ruined my divorce case by submitting to every demand of the opposite side and not doing his homework on my case. My daughter was taken hostage by my Ex. Suddenly, after years of bond and good "father-daughter" relat...ionship, my daughter "decided" not to have any contacts with me and my side of the family...Reason is very simple, less time Father spends with his children MORE in child support he has to pay to "the custodial parent"- Mother, just holds the child "hostage" and using her to EXTORT more money from "the non-custodial" parent - Father. I was paying almost $4,500 per month in child and spousal support to my ex-spouse which was literally ruining me financially, and meantime my Ex was purposely unemployed or underemployed during separation process as well as held our daughter hostage, severing our bond and preventing all contacts between me and my child. I became desperate: I was NOT able to comply with the Support order I was given by the Court, I was falling further and further behind in my support payments. I came to consult Constantine in his office one evening, he listened to me, he explained to me Family Law principles; he stressed how important to restore and keep contact between Father and child for the sake of my child. Very unfortunately my employment was ended by employer (downsizing). I needed to modify the amount of support I was ordered to pay when I had my employment. My Ex opposed any changes. I consulted Constantine again he explained me what needs to be done to modify support in my situation and gave me "homework" to get prepared for our next court hearing. During our hearing on 10/15/2014 in Martinez Family Court on issue of my request for support modification Constantine undertook to represent me. He showed brilliant skills as a family law attorney and as a public speaker. To make long story short, as result of Constantine's work my payments in both child and spousal support were reduced by almost 85%. I highly recommend Constantine Zhukovsky - he is honest, skillful and he will fight for you and your Children to the end! Keep relationship with your children! Do not let them to be held hostages by vindictive Ex; it will ruin the lives of your children for good...