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Client Testimonials

I was referred to Ken Raggio by a friend and neighbor who used Ken Raggio to represent her in her divorce. She was very happy with his representation of her, so I consulted with Ken and he recommended that, due to the facts of the case, I was financially better off staying married to my husband as long as possible. Basically a year or so later I found out that my husband had filed for divorce, so I hired Ken. We then had a meeting of the two lawyers with the two parties to discuss having an efficient and amicable divorce proceeding. Over the next several months we exchanged sworn inventories and each other’s financial records. The case was set for trial, but we settled it in a mediation a month before trial and after both sides knew what the whole story was. Additionally, Ken helped me walk through the emotional issues of dealing with the end of a long-term marriage. I am grateful for his support and guidance. I’m very pleased with the services that I received from Ken and his firm and highly recommend them. -SdS-
I looked up international divorce on the web. I found Ken Raggio. I was also referred to him by an attorney who knows the reputation of the Raggio’s in the Dallas legal community and specifically in divorce and family law. Specifically, my husband and I had last lived together at his home in Germany. Which meant that this was an international divorce case. My goals were very clear: I wanted to get a divorce, instead of spending months or years and a small fortune dealing with jurisdictional issues that arise all the time in international divorces. So Ken devised a straightforward and efficient plan to try and help me achieve my goal. And it worked! I went to court with Ken just three months after the divorce was filed and got my divorce granted. B.G.
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 indicating 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. C.F.
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 our 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. A. W.
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. ARB

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Electronic Evidence

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The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Collecting and Presenting Electronic Evidence
by
Melissa F. Brown & Kenneth G. Raggio

For “civilians”, the parts about Call Spoofing at the end is quite informatve

I. Introduction

A. Anecdotal Fact Situation 1

You are at your client’s deposition. Questions are asked that you and your client agree that there is no way the other side should know to inquire about unless they had access to confidential communications with the lawyer.

What is going on?

B. Anecdotal Fact Situation 2

Your client, the wife, suspects that her husband has an interesting personal and financial life with their small business outside of her knowledge as a stay-at-home mom. She sees the second page of a tax return – enough to see the place for her to sign – every year for 12.5 seconds. She knows that her husband keeps his laptop computer with him everywhere, but she does not know whether he owns it personally or whether his employer owns it.

How do you get, use, and possibly present the potential goldmine of data on the notebook computer?

C. Anecdotal Fact Situation 3

Wife is sure that her husband is not only smoking dope/cheating on her/whatever, and tells him she has proof of same – in writing. Your client, the husband, says she must have gotten into his Facebook/My Space pages.

How do you advise your client?

D. Anecdotal Fact Situation 4

Husband suspects wife is having an affair. He decides to follow her. He wisely tells his business lawyer, who refers him to you for a consultation. He is in your office, describing the above.

What’s next?

E. Anecdotal Fact Situation 5

The wife discovered her husband was involved in an affair. The husband admitted to the affair and admitted he communicated by email with his paramour. The wife informed her daughter-in-law of the situation. The daughter-in-law knew the husband had a Yahoo email account and correctly guessed the password and security questions to access the account. She then printed copies of emails from the account and gave them to the wife’s divorce attorney. The husband sued the wife, the daughter-in-law and the attorney alleging several violations, including violations of the Stored Communication Act (SCA). ( Jennings v. Jennings, SC Sup Ct.)

What possible issues? What result?

F. Anecdotal Fact Situation 6

Father and Mother are in a post divorce child custody dispute. A call to 911 indicates that an armed robbery is in progress at Mother’s apartment that is also the child’s home. The Swat team arrives and knocks, and then busts down the door. A surprised Mom tells the cops nothing is happening, that she made no call, and that the Father must have done this. The Police, just doing their job to make sure she and the child are not in danger, search the place, and find graphic evidence of Mom’s new career as an oil wrestler. The police incident report reveals that the 911 call originated from Mom’s phone, but there is no phone found on the premises when the police were there.

Despite assertions and some evidence that Father spoofed the 911 call, can he use the evidence from the report in his custody case?

G. These situations and variations thereof are the basis of this article and of the live presentation. Much has been written about procuring electronic evidence and use of it in a family law case. Few pleasures exceed exposing a lying spouse with their own words—or actions. But there are many pitfalls between the “birth” of such data and the use and presentation of it.

Melissa Brown’s attached article Safety and Security in a Digital Age is a primer on many ways that electronic evidence is legally and illegally collected. The time of presentation will not allow exploration of all species of illegal evidence collection and use, but rather will focus on a few areas.

This article will evolve. Later versions can be retrieved from www.raggiolaw.com/electronic-evidence or from www.scdivorcelaw.com/electronic-evidence. The materials will not repeat the excellent materials presented by Carole Gailor and by Jim Hennenhoffer and Gordon Cruse and at last year’s Midwinter meeting, but will leverage those presentations.

The presentation will discuss various views of a particular problem, from the generation of data all the way through a judge’s impression of it in court.

II. The Lay of the Land

A. Types of Evidence that is Out There

1. Traditional Discovery

2. Traditional Surveillance

3. “Enhanced” Surveillance

B. If Electricity (or a Battery) Powers It…

C. Life is Not So Simple Anymore..

III. Lawyers and Clients – Avoid “Stupid”

A. Client “Stupid”

1. Passwords/Access to Data

2. Emails and Texts

3. Social Media Postings and Settings

4. Cell Phones

5. Recordings, when legal/not legal

6. Stalking

7. Does Arrogance Sometimes Equal Ignorance?

B. Lawyer “Stupid”

1. Spoliation by Ignorance – Duty to Preserve, ( Lester v. Allied Concrete )

2. Duty to Inform Client to Preserve See National Law Journal article.

3. Knowledge of Illegal Evidence

a. Reliance on Client’s Representations ( US v Wuliger)

b. Client Cannot Disclose Illegal Evidence ( Peavy v WFAA-TV, Inc.)

4. Minnesota State Bar v Thomas Lowe (2013 )
“Compound” stupid

C. Make client aware of technology that could be used against them even if it is illegal

1. Spoof/Trap Call card See attached photos.

2. Locational Recording devices (GPS device or GPS software in a smart phone, etc)

3. Keystroke Logger & Other Trojans

4. Don’t Forget Traditional Surveillance

IV. Evidentiary Issues in Court

A. Computer Hard drive – Showing to get and Chain of Custody to present

B. “Hard” Evidence

C. Electronic Evidence -8 step procedure to obtain ESI ( In Re Weekly Homes ) (Texas Supreme Court-discusses lot of Federal and other states’ cases. For 8 steps see pp21-22)

D. Websites/Facebook/Twitter

E. Individual Items on Websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter such as posts, comments or photographs

V. The Tripwires

A. Wiretap Act ( O’Brien v O’Brien —spyware on home computer)

B. Stored Communications Act 18 USC 2701

C. The Computer Fraud Act 18 USC 1030

D. Electronic Discovery Act

E. Electronic Communications Privacy Act

F. Federal Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 47 USC 227 (e)

G. State Acts, using Texas, New York, and South Carolina as examples
A listing of [some] of the 50 states’ Computer anti-hacking laws:
http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=computerlaws/state-hacking-laws

H. After-the-Fact Civil Remedies Available to the “Wronged” from the “Perpetrator(s)”

VI. Use of Electronic Evidence

A. See V above FIRST

B. Discovery Requests and Acquisition of Evidence

C. Evolving Trends

1. Emails ( Zubulake I and Zubelale III fromWikipedia; White v White, NJ-2001 )

2. Reply Letter Document

3. Text Messages ( Christou v Beatport ) US DC, CO 2013

4. Internet Website Postings ( Tienda v. State )

5. Chat Room Content

6. Invasion of Privacy

D. Stored Data Versus Processed Data ( Garcia v City of Laredo )

E. Hearsay or Not

F. Authentication

G. Lorraine v Markel test

1. Relevant (FRE 401)

2. Authentic (FRE 901 (a)-902)

3. Not Hearsay (FRE 801-807)

Original or Duplicate (FRE 1001-1008)

Probative value vs. unfair prejudice (FRE 403)

VII. Other Items

A. The answer sheet to the Anecdotal questions.

B. Guide to Cases

Events that have come to light in the recent past

VII. Call Spoofing

The following screen shots from a real live cell phone show how incredibly simple it is to spoof a call. The recipient’s caller ID will show a call incoming from, say the father’s phone. And her bill will prove that Mom received what she says was an harassing call at the time she received the spoofed call.

Celebrities have been abused this way-Katie Couric recently in New York and various movie stars in Hollywood. AND NO ONE HAS BEEN CAUGHT YET.

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