Side-by-Side Comparison
Compare Divorce Lawyers
Pick any two Pinellas County divorce attorneys and see their track records side by side — objective counts from public court records, 2020–2026. No reviews, no star ratings, no scores.
Track Records Compared
Objective counts from Pinellas County dissolution-of-marriage court records, 2020–2026. Em dashes mean the value is not available in public records. Neither column is “better” — these are facts, not scores.
| Metric | Christopher YeazellYeazell and Sweet | David RistoffRistoff and Riley Law Group |
|---|---|---|
| Years licensedFlorida Bar | 37 | 14 |
| Pinellas dissolutions of recordAll-years dissolution-of-marriage cases | 43 | 79 |
| Active last 12 monthsCases filed in the last year | 15 | 8 |
| Final judgmentsCases ending with a signed final judgment | 25 | 34 |
| DismissedCases closed without a final judgment | 0 | 0 |
| Settlement rate *See caveat below — not a win rate | 60.0% | 58.8% |
| Cases with childrenCustody and timesharing involved | 7 | 19 |
| Expert-witness casesCases with experts in the docket | 8 | 12 |
| Motions per caseAverage filings per case | 4.5 | 3.7 |
| HearingsDocketed hearings across cases | — | — |
| BadgesDeterministic, threshold-based — hover for criteria | VeteranVery activeHigh settlement | High settlement |
* Settlement rate: Share of final judgments with a settlement agreement in the docket. Dismissals are not counted as settlements, and most private settlements never appear in dockets.
How They Match Up
Every sentence below is generated from the same fixed count templates for every pair of attorneys — filled in from public court records, with the data source and time window labeled on each block. Higher counts are facts of record, not recommendations, and nothing here measures skill or predicts outcomes.
Experience
Pinellas: Clerk portal-verified dissolutions of record (all years) · Hillsborough: derived from 13th Circuit clerk case records (not portal-verified) · Florida Bar years licensed · filings in the last 12 months
- Christopher Yeazell has 43 Pinellas dissolution cases of record vs David Ristoff's 79 — 36 more cases of record for David Ristoff. A larger count means more documented Pinellas dissolutions, nothing more.
- In Hillsborough County, Christopher Yeazell has 22 dissolution cases of record vs David Ristoff's 12.
- Christopher Yeazell has been licensed 37 years vs David Ristoff's 14 — a 23-year difference in time licensed, not a measure of ability.
- In the last 12 months, Christopher Yeazell appeared in 15 newly filed cases vs David Ristoff's 8 — 7 more recent filings for Christopher Yeazell.
Filing Style
Analyzed 2020–2026 Pinellas docket sample
- Christopher Yeazell files an average of 4.5 motions per case vs David Ristoff's 3.7 — a higher-motion litigation pattern for Christopher Yeazell (0.8 more motions per case on average). Motion volume is a docket count, not a quality measure.
Documented Tendencies
Analyzed 2020–2026 Pinellas docket sample
- 15 of Christopher Yeazell's 25 sampled final judgments had a settlement agreement visible in the docket (60.0%).
- 20 of David Ristoff's 34 sampled final judgments had a settlement agreement visible in the docket (58.8%).
- Christopher Yeazell's sampled cases: 25 ended in final judgments, 0 closed without one (dismissed).
- David Ristoff's sampled cases: 34 ended in final judgments, 0 closed without one (dismissed).
Settlement figures count only settlement agreements visible in the docket — dismissals are not counted as settlements, and most private settlements never appear in dockets. This is a docket-visibility measure, not a win rate.
Judge Overlap
Case assignments in the analyzed 2020–2026 Pinellas docket sample — appearance counts, not outcomes
Both attorneys have appeared before 9 of the same judges in the analyzed sample. Appearance counts say how often each attorney has worked in that courtroom — nothing about results there.
| Judge | Christopher Yeazell | David Ristoff |
|---|---|---|
| Frederick L. Pollack | 8 cases | 7 cases |
| David R. Ellis | 6 cases | 7 cases |
| Elizabeth Jack | 1 case | 8 cases |
| William H. Burgess III | 4 cases | 5 cases |
| Aaron W. Hubbard | 1 case | 6 cases |
| Steve D. Berlin | 1 case | 6 cases |
| Jack Helinger | 4 cases | 2 cases |
| Brian Gnage | 3 cases | 2 cases |
+ 1 more shared judge with smaller appearance counts
Head-to-Head
These attorneys have faced each other in 2 cases.
1 final judgment · 1 dismissed
In those shared cases, Christopher Yeazell was on the petitioner side 0 times and the respondent side 2 times — David Ristoff the reverse.
2 cases with mixed outcomes — no dominant pattern.
Most recent shared case filed 2025-04-11
Most Experience Against
Attorneys with the most documented cases opposite each of these two — useful if you are interviewing counsel and the other side has already retained one of them. Appearance counts are from public court records.
Opposite Christopher Yeazell
Deduped head-to-head case counts, 2020–2026 docket sample
- K. Dean Kantaras2 final judgments · 3 dismissed5 cases
- Kerya Koeut2 final judgments · 3 dismissed5 cases
- Carl T. Boake1 final judgment · 2 dismissed3 cases
- Cody Emerson2 final judgments · 0 dismissed2 cases
- Belinda Lazzara2 final judgments · 0 dismissed2 cases
Opposite David Ristoff
Deduped head-to-head case counts, 2020–2026 docket sample
- Laurie Sweet1 final judgment · 1 dismissed2 cases
Based on public court records covering 143 Pinellas County divorce attorneys, 2020–2026 · Data updated May 8, 2026 · How these rankings work