In Feb of 2014, I hired Ms Kris Costello to represent me on a felony domestic violence (threat) charge. Ms Costello had advertised a rate of $7,000.00 but charged roughly $50,000.00 without explanation. She has since removed her advertised rate of $7,000.00 from her website, and no longer lists DV defence as one of her services.
When I hire her, she never told me she was too busy working on other cases to give my case the attention I deserved. She kept postponing my right to a speedy trial for her own convenience. This wound up costing me a great deal of money and lost profits from stocks I had to sell in order to pay her, and meet my living expenses.
She did not conduct a proper investigation, and never interviewed my 19 year old daughter who was my primary accuser. A competent lawyer would have done so, and exposed the truth. Ms. Costello also refused to submit into evidence recordings of my wife's psychological abuse towards me and any son the morning of my first arrest that I made for my own protection. I did not threaten my wife, and these recordings prove my wife was in another jealous rage.
After meeting my wife in the presence of her attorney at Ms. Costello's office, Ms. Costello recommended I take a plea deal because she claimed my wife came across as unstable, and that this would work against me at trail. She also claimed it would be more cost effective for me and my family finances. After the NCO was lifted, I found neither case was true.
In short, I reluctantly accepted the plea deal. When I arrived in court, Ms. Costello showed me a piece of paper in which I was also to plead that "these things are true". She never discussed what "these things" were with me at any point before my plea. The only thing she said to me (while waiting in the courtroom to see the judge) was if I kept my mouth shut, then I would get to have unrestricted access to my 9 year old son. So, when the judge ask me if I had read and understood "these things are true", I lied to him upon her advice, and said yes.
After hiring another attorney to review Ms Costello's work, I discovered that all of the things I pleaded "true" were lies. Among other things this included a lie by the Bellevue Police Department, and DA that I had violated the NCO, and for which I was rearrested in lieu of $250,000.00 bail 2 days after my February 2014 arrest.
I finally hired another lawyer several months and tens of thousands of dollars later to clean up Ms. Costello's mess, get the NCO entirely lifted, and reunite with my wife. On that day in court I learned that the NCO was still in effect with my 9 year old son, and that every moment I was with him I was subject to rearrest. Fortunately, this did not happen.
Ms. Costello also never revealed to me that she is a l. It's not that I have a problem with her sexuality, but, being a heterosexual male, I would not have risked hiring her knowing that she may have formed negative stereotypes of men because of past possible disfuctional hetersexual relationships.
Costello and Associates PLLC Reviews
In Feb of 2014, I hired Ms Kris Costello to represent me on a felony domestic violence (threat) charge. Ms Costello had advertised a rate of $7,000.00 but charged roughly $50,000.00 without explanation. She has since removed her advertised rate of $7,000.00 from her website, and no longer lists DV defence as one of her services.
When I hire her, she never told me she was too busy working on other cases to give my case the attention I deserved. She kept postponing my right to a speedy trial for her own convenience. This wound up costing me a great deal of money and lost profits from stocks I had to sell in order to pay her, and meet my living expenses.
She did not conduct a proper investigation, and never interviewed my 19 year old daughter who was my primary accuser. A competent lawyer would have done so, and exposed the truth. Ms. Costello also refused to submit into evidence recordings of my wife's psychological abuse towards me and any son the morning of my first arrest that I made for my own protection. I did not threaten my wife, and these recordings prove my wife was in another jealous rage.
After meeting my wife in the presence of her attorney at Ms. Costello's office, Ms. Costello recommended I take a plea deal because she claimed my wife came across as unstable, and that this would work against me at trail. She also claimed it would be more cost effective for me and my family finances. After the NCO was lifted, I found neither case was true.
In short, I reluctantly accepted the plea deal. When I arrived in court, Ms. Costello showed me a piece of paper in which I was also to plead that "these things are true". She never discussed what "these things" were with me at any point before my plea. The only thing she said to me (while waiting in the courtroom to see the judge) was if I kept my mouth shut, then I would get to have unrestricted access to my 9 year old son. So, when the judge ask me if I had read and understood "these things are true", I lied to him upon her advice, and said yes.
After hiring another attorney to review Ms Costello's work, I discovered that all of the things I pleaded "true" were lies. Among other things this included a lie by the Bellevue Police Department, and DA that I had violated the NCO, and for which I was rearrested in lieu of $250,000.00 bail 2 days after my February 2014 arrest.
I finally hired another lawyer several months and tens of thousands of dollars later to clean up Ms. Costello's mess, get the NCO entirely lifted, and reunite with my wife. On that day in court I learned that the NCO was still in effect with my 9 year old son, and that every moment I was with him I was subject to rearrest. Fortunately, this did not happen.
Ms. Costello also never revealed to me that she is a l. It's not that I have a problem with her sexuality, but, being a heterosexual male, I would not have risked hiring her knowing that she may have formed negative stereotypes of men because of past possible disfuctional hetersexual relationships.