Nancy L Sponseller Law Office

Hard working. High integrity. Very practical. An A+ advocate. Insightful. Excellent communicator. Very thorough.

It has now been just over two and a half years since my divorce was finalized. I regret that I allowed Nancy Sponseller to represent me in my Collaborative Divorce. I ALSO regret that I used the Colaborative Divorce process. I entrusted Nancy Sponseller with accurate legal council. She was a nice woman and no doubt cares deeply for her friends, Church, and pets....however I was hiring an attorney, not a friend. She was paid tens of thousands of dollars for her legal services for my divorce. (I could write a whole new review about how the collaborative divorce process is NOT a money saving way to divorce. Ex: Instead of paying the hourly rate to talk to ones attorney one on one...in the collaborative process because of the team approach discussions became exceptionally expensive paying not only the hourly rate for one professional, but we had up to FIVE separate professionals at our team meetings and conference calls making a simple fifteen minute discussion cost us up to FIVE times what it could have cost). During my divorce I was paying for and I deserved honest, frank, legal advice. Since my divorce was finalized in January of 2016, I have come to realize ( from seeking other legal council and from my accountant) that I was fed a number of untruths by both my attorney and my ex husbands attorney during the collaborative divorce process leading me to agree upon terms that leave me far short financially from any plug and chug child support/ spousal support/ marital asset calculations. I had never been divorced before, I DID NOT KNOW WHAT I DID NOT KNOW and this is where I feel my attorney Nancy Sponseller and the colaborative process failed me. I cannot divulge exact details in this review because I was, I feel, cornered into signing an agreement to never say anything bad about my ex husband and to never divulge the finances of my divorce agreement. This be nice contingency was written into my divorce decree by MY attorney Nancy Sponseller without prior discussion with me. This be nice agreement was tacked onto the agreed upon divorce decree and presented, at the very end, to both myself and my ex husband (WITHOUT PRIOR discussion with either of us!!!). I felt I was to agree and sign to this confidentiality agreement or throw out the ENTIRE divorce decree that had been agreed upon using the Colaborative Team . We were at the end. The bills from our Collaborative Divorce were daunting, and there was NO way we could financially afford to, at this point, walk away and start over from ground zero ( part of the Collaborative Divorce agreement) with a traditional divorce as we would still have all the bills from our collaborative divorce. While I now ( I would argue very conveniently for Nancy and Collaborative Divorce process) cannot divulge the exact specifics and untruths I was told during my divorce by my attorney, I can tell you some things I have legally learned since. The scale to calculate child support does NOT stop at $150,000!!!!! There IS a plug and chug child support calculation for incomes above $150,000. This is clearly stated at the top of the child support calculation chart for the state of Ohio. I have also learned that there is a SIGNIFICANT TAX BURDEN to the recipient if marital equity is paid as spousal support (tax credit to the one paying). I have since learned by seeking other legal council that if one spouse cannot afford to pay out the marital equity to the other at the time of divorce that there IS a way of receiving payments over time, TAX FREE as you are legally entitled to do so for your marital equity. I have many more examples. Please note that I had legal grounds to sue Nancy for malpractice. I didnt realize my rights and how I was legally wronged until AFTER the statue of limitations had expired. After leaving my career for the past ten years to raise our two children, my ex lives a lavish lifestyle while I am taking on student loan debt, and living off less and have far more expenses NOW than I did as a single career woman in 2003.