Katherine Elizabeth Peterson

Kati was our attorney with a third party custody case, she was on top of everything, very informative, replied to my emails, questions, and calls within an hour or so of my sending it. She was passionate, very helpful, and professional. I highly recommend her to anyone especially if they are going th...rough a difficult child custody case. I would hire her again in a minute. She is worth every penny. Excellent attorney!

In 2014, after enduring months of a difficult and discriminatory legal process in Snohomish County, hiring attorney Katherine became the second major setback for both my child and me. My daughter had been removed from me after the other parent was arrested for domestic violence. Despite that, he secu...red full custody using a law firm that had previously represented me in 2012 — a clear conflict of interest. The court did not grant me a hearing, did not request any evidence against me, and overlooked the conflict entirely, transferring custody to him immediately after his arrest. I met Katherine through the Northwest Justice Project around the fall of 2014. She expressed indignation about my case and gave me her direct contact information. At the time, the opposing party was filing large amounts of paperwork against me. As an immigrant with limited English, few resources, and little knowledge of the U.S. legal system, I still managed to respond and protect my position. I hired Katherine believing she would act decisively with the strong evidence I had. Unfortunately, that did not happen. She declined to present important evidence, missed any opportunity, and maintained an unusually friendly rapport with the opposing party, allowing them time to create new allegations, drown me in more paperwork. I often had to prepare my own filings with help from friends because she did not return my calls or emails. At one point, she pressured me to sign an admission based on what I believed was fabricated evidence from the other side, telling me, “Just sign.” I refused because it was like admitting a crime and she didn't care. When I had gathered additional evidence and asked to go to trial, the court instead ordered mediation after more than ten months of contentious litigation. A serious matter in my case — my daughter’s repeated disclosure of SA by her paternal grandfather — had been documented since 2013. Katherine referred to this as “the elephant in the room,” yet did not pursue action to protect my child. For mediation, she agreed to use a retired judge who had previously worked for the same law firm representing my ex. I did not understand that at the time. During the mediation, Katherine raised her voice at me many times, ignore me, treated me as a dumb, did not address key points she previously brough up to me, repeatedly told me the court would not return my child to me, and said I would lose without money or family in the U.S. She threatened to leave my case immediately if I did not settle that day. By the end of the session, I felt worn down and pressured into signing a parenting plan that, in my view, is a highly abusive parenting plan designed to protect lies and control me rather than to secure my child’s basic rights. I did not want to sign, but her final blow was: *“If the grandfather is really sexually abusing your child, you will be his accomplice by pursuing justice.”* "sing the 50/50 custody! to at least protect your kid in your time" and assured me I could change the plan in a few months — a LIE. I signed without fully understanding the documents, my language barrier completely disregarded. Katherine told me I could change the plan within a few months — which proved untrue. Because of my language limitations, I did not fully understand all the terms when I signed. After mediation, once friends helped me review the documents, I contacted her immediately to withdraw my agreement, but she did not act on it. That parenting plan became a sentence, — the foundation for another eventual removal from my child’s life, and she knew it. Since then, my daughter has continued to face harmful treatment from her father and his family. In my experience, Katherine’s representation did not protect my interests or my child’s safety.

I hired this attorney while facing extreme crisis in my divorce. She seemed competent on our consultation. After I paid retainer fee she became confrontational, was avoiding me and dismissing important information for my case. Never called me to prepare for our contempt motion. She showed up to our m...otion unprepared, confrontational and did not act in my best interest and lost my contempt motion. Absolutely terrible representation.