A military veteran is suing a prominent St. Louis father’s rights attorney because she allegedly told him he could access his ex-wife's email account over which he almost lost his job.
Air Force Academy graduate Joel Fritts filed the lawsuit last week against his former attorney Erin Zielinski, a lead litigator at Cordell & Cordell law firm where she works alleging legal malpractice in his divorce from Barbara Kate Ransick-Fritts. Cordell & Cordell is also named as a defendant.
“He was investigated and it jeopardized his employment, but he survived that because he had the password from when they were married,” said Larry Mass, a legal malpractice attorney representing Fritts.
Fritts’ ex-wife was represented by Maia Brodie who formerly employed Zielinski.
“The accusation against my client was that if he couldn't be trusted to honor his wife's email, then he couldn't be trusted to be with his sons,” Mass said in an interview. “It's very hard to see how that would affect the best interest of their two boys.”
The couple had been married since 2003 and their divorce was finalized on July 12, 2022. Their two sons are 12 and 14 years old.
“The other acts of malpractice dealt with Zielinski not acting to help bring about my client having more access to his sons, about her not checking on his financial statements to make sure they were accurate,” Mass told the St. Louis Record. “She also agreed to amounts for support on a temporary basis that was beyond what he would be obligated to pay under Form 14 and the rules providing for that.”
Form 14 is a child support amount calculation worksheet employed to estimate the child support obligation that a court may order a parent to pay.
With the help of his new attorney Michelle House, Mass said Fritts was granted equal time with his sons however during the course of the divorce for several years, he had minimal to little contact with his sons.
“This exacerbated that, and it damaged him and his sons,” Mass alleged. “Zielinski also breached his confidentiality when he told some confidential matters to Guardian Ad Litem Elaine Pudlowski and Maia Brodie.”
The complaint was filed in the 21st Circuit Court of St. Louis County.
Fritts, who served in active military duty for more than 12 years, suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and was rated 70 percent disabled for which he receives Veterans Administration benefits, according to the complaint.
"Ransick-Fritts and/or her father had informed the Guardian ad Litem (GAL) in the divorce proceedings of a significant amount of confidential physical and mental health information regarding Plaintiff’s medical history and had provided copies of Plaintiff’s confidential medical records to the GAL," Mass wrote in the Feb. 8 complaint.