Geauga County Bar Association

Reviews

• DD

  Dennis

  Nov 29, 2023
  1.0
  Nobody would answer the phone and nobody returned my call. Completely worthless.
• DZ

  DM Z

  Apr 10, 2023
  1.0
  Ms. Castell repeatedly abused the power of her position as a GAL, and was unethical and unprofessional during my case. Not only did she unilaterally make decisions and pass them off as binding, she did so with an incomplete review of the facts and without formally bringing it to the attention of the court (i.e. file a motion with the court) during Covid which gave her greater latitude since the backlog in the court system was great. She took advantage of the backlog, and had more freedom to self govern. In a single stroke of the keyboard, Ms. Castell independently enforced sweeping changes that would forever alter the course of the life of our child. Her conduct was far overreaching, and beyond the jurisdiction of a GAL’s role. The GAL is to advise the court and act in the best interest of the child, not formally change visitation and other custody arrangements outside the auspices of the court. Ms. Castell acted as if she was a ruling authority, changing visitation schedules, ordering all to abide by her suggested changes, without formally modifying them with the court. Furthermore, after my child forcefully objected to her suggested visitation, she did not withdraw the change (which never was corrected after she backed off from her egregious error), and failed to bring my child’s extreme negative reaction to her proposed (and implemented) rules to the court’s attention as a GAL is required to do. She did not launch a formal investigation with the court after my child told her that he wanted to press charges against his parent. She ignored his request. My child went as far as expressing that he didn’t want to live because of her visitation changes. Not only did Ms. Castell ignore these comments, she enforced her changes anyway. Ms. Castell continued to rule over decision after decision without ever once advising us to go before an actual judge and file real motions. She never disclosed that she did not have any authority to make binding changes to court ordered visitation and had no authority to compel either party to follow her rules. I repeatedly requested that her experiment with our family end, and was repeatedly denied without any basis. The changes Ms. Castell made weren’t endorsed by the courts in anyway whatsoever, yet she felt she had the authority to keep all parties moving along under her imposed structure long after I had objected to it (and it failed). It was gross abuse of power that resulted in long term damage to our family. Her final report failed to detail the entire episode, and was incredibly biased, haphazardly done, and not completely factual. She failed to do the proper due diligence, independently examine records and statistics, and then went completely silent after being called out for her overreaching role. She went from being heavily involved in daily decision making and custody arrangements, to silence. She also failed to notify the court that changes were made to court ordered visitation under her authority, and she continued to go rogue until she was stopped by my attorney. This conduct was unethical and actually placed children in danger. She completely ignored my concerns, and dismissed my fears as being overly dramatic. A year later, my concerns have been more than substantiated and life has never been the same. Please note that this is a person who took it upon herself to act on behalf of the court in ways that were far over reaching, and worked outside the boundaries of her position which is very dangerous and reckless. It can cause serious damage to mental and physical well-being of a child, and it has. If this person is assigned as your GAL it is my opinion that you should immediately request a change, or try to work out the issue amongst yourselves because your life as a family is about to be turned upside down. I can not opine as to the quality of her other work, but I can assume that someone who takes the law into her own hands without regard for the guidelines of her role within the court is haphazard and erratic. I would not recommend her as a professional, absolutely not.
• DH

  Dawn Hendricks

  Dec 11, 2022
  1.0
  I keep calling and leaving messages but nobody seems to want to even call back.
• KK

  Kimberly

  Feb 20, 2021
  2.0
  Haven't returned my call yet after 5 days.
• AJ

  Anita Jacobson

  Apr 27, 2018
  5.0
  Was a tremendous help to me on very short notice.

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