Reviews

After consulting with many attorneys I was discouraged. No lawyer I talked with thought that I could achieve the legal results that I wanted. I found Attorney Crusco, and she told me that she would try and was hopeful that I could get what I hoped for. In the end, I got exactly the legal results I had hoped for. I am very grateful to her.

Kysa Crusco is a talented, honest and experienced lawyer adept at both negotiations/mediation and courtroom litigation. I was very lucky to have her represent me in a messy, contentious divorce. I would recommend Attorney Crusco to anyone seeking legal advice or representation.

I hired Kysa to handle a termination of parental rights and adoption case. She was thorough, knowledgeable, and sensitive to the emotional and stressful nature of the case. Kysa successfully brought the case through trial and achieved a great result which allowed our adoption. I highly recommend her.

Attorney Crusco talked a good game during the initial consultation, but turned out to be worse than having no attorney at all. After doing little to prepare my divorce case, she showed up to the first mediation session and sat mum while the opposing attorney suggested that my children would be better off with my spouse having more than half time with them--after a long time with equal parenting (but with me providing more emotional and academic support for both children), and after my spouse had hit my older child, called my older child names causing him to be depressed with thoughts of self-harm, etc. I was forced at that session to argue against the other attorney myself, while Attorney Crusco repeatedly suggested to me that I meet the other attorney halfway. I was filled with misgivings after this mediation at her apparent lack of interest in my children's well-being and her sandbagging of my position, when I feel a more proper response would have been a harder line and a firmer bargaining position. At the next mediation session, things got worse. Within a short time Attorney Crusco had alienated my spouse to the point that my spouse threatened to leave mediation, and Attorney Crusco showed a lack of preparation for the mediation session as well. Nothing at all was accomplished at either mediation session, but I was later billed thousands, when the mediation sessions had only lasted for five to six hours. Following the second mediation, Attorney Crusco promised to draft a settlement offer letter, but failed to do so after an extended wait time; she promised to send the draft to me by a certain Friday, then left for personal leave for a week, and when she returned still took too much time to get a simple letter together. Then, when I asked for certain protections to be added to the letter she disregarded requests some of the time--seeming not to even read them--and drafted language which didn't protect me well at all. When I repeatedly asked that my concerns be addressed, she finally stated that she had drafted the letter and didn't intend in the end to put in my requested changes--and that I'd better approve her version of the letter if I wanted it sent. In the end, I couldn't put up with Attorney Crusco's non-performance and lack of proper attention to my case, so I was forced to fire her.

I learned a lot from Kysa, and she was always willing to explain anything I didn't understand. I was always glad to see her, thankful that she was on my side, and relying on her to say exactly what I was thinking, but couldn't put into words. Her motions were crafted so beautifully, covering all the points I wanted to make to the judge. Her arguments were so logical and obvious (once she point them out) that it was impossible to see how we couldn't win every time. In fact I don't think she lost a single motion out of dozens she filed on my behalf over three years (except for the ones demanding attorney's fees :>). When I became emotional and irrational, she still listened to me and got information out of my ranting. When I whispered a question to her in court she knew exactly what I meant and put my point on the record. I could not have asked for a better representative to state my side of my divorce battle. It is vital to stress that though my case went to trial, Kysa worked every angle to avoid that. She told me that a divorce trial is rare, and rarely worth it (my words, not hers). She tried extremely hard to help us reach a settlement that I could live with. At one point, during a shuttled mediation session, she helped me come to grips with each offer and counter-offer, and it looked like we were making progress. But when I saw the final result on paper, I realized I could not live with it. Kysa advised me to think it over, overnight, and advised the mediator that I was reconsidering my last offer to my ex, which must have been difficult after hours and hours of negotiation and being so close to settling. When I told her the next day that I knew exactly why I could not live with it, and explained it to her, she backed me up 100%. She didn't try to push me one way or another - she just made sure *I* knew the implications of what I was saying, and put it into action. I have to mention that it was a pleasure to watch her question witnesses and make them say exactly what she wanted them to say. For example, when I was accused of causing emotional distress, she forced my ex to admit that there was literally *no* evidence of that (e.g., therapy, doctor visits, sleeplessness, etc). Finally, again I say that I was always happy to see Kysa, even when things seemed bad. I guess I knew that even if I lost in the end, there's no way anyone could have presented my case any more clearly. If I was going to lose it would be because the judge wasn't paying attention, or my ex's attorney was successful at demonizing me, or whatever; it *wasn't* going to be because I didn't have my full say. I *did* have my say. Because of Kysa.

Attorney Crusco is up to date in all the nuances of family law and used this knowledge to present a compelling, well-thought out case for me. My pre- and post-divorce were also complex and she was on point every step of the way. I really appreciate her humanistic, wholistic perspective on family law and her persistence in helping me achieve my legal goals.