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 | Garth R. GoodmanGarth R. Goodman, P.A. | Cody EmersonEmerson Law |
|---|---|---|
| Years licensedFlorida Bar | 32 | 12 |
| Pinellas dissolutions of recordAll-years dissolution-of-marriage cases | 305 | 166 |
| Active last 12 monthsCases filed in the last year | 9 | 21 |
| Final judgmentsCases ending with a signed final judgment | 47 | 68 |
| DismissedCases closed without a final judgment | 3 | 5 |
| Settlement rate *See caveat below — not a win rate | 51.1% | 41.2% |
| Cases with childrenCustody and timesharing involved | 26 | 101 |
| Expert-witness casesCases with experts in the docket | 27 | 44 |
| Motions per caseAverage filings per case | 3.0 | 1.4 |
| HearingsDocketed hearings across cases | — | — |
| BadgesDeterministic, threshold-based — hover for criteria | VeteranHandles complex | Very activeHandles complex |
* 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
- Garth R. Goodman has 305 Pinellas dissolution cases of record vs Cody Emerson's 166 — 139 more cases of record for Garth R. Goodman. A larger count means more documented Pinellas dissolutions, nothing more.
- In Hillsborough County, Garth R. Goodman has 4 dissolution cases of record vs Cody Emerson's 9.
- Garth R. Goodman has been licensed 32 years vs Cody Emerson's 12 — a 20-year difference in time licensed, not a measure of ability.
- In the last 12 months, Garth R. Goodman appeared in 9 newly filed cases vs Cody Emerson's 21 — 12 more recent filings for Cody Emerson.
Filing Style
Analyzed 2020–2026 Pinellas docket sample
- Garth R. Goodman files an average of 3.0 motions per case vs Cody Emerson's 1.4 — a higher-motion litigation pattern for Garth R. Goodman (1.6 more motions per case on average). Motion volume is a docket count, not a quality measure.
Documented Tendencies
Analyzed 2020–2026 Pinellas docket sample
- 24 of Garth R. Goodman's 47 sampled final judgments had a settlement agreement visible in the docket (51.1%).
- 28 of Cody Emerson's 68 sampled final judgments had a settlement agreement visible in the docket (41.2%).
- Garth R. Goodman's sampled cases: 47 ended in final judgments, 3 closed without one (dismissed).
- Cody Emerson's sampled cases: 68 ended in final judgments, 5 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 13 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 | Garth R. Goodman | Cody Emerson |
|---|---|---|
| Frederick L. Pollack | 6 cases | 58 cases |
| David R. Ellis | 4 cases | 57 cases |
| Steve D. Berlin | 19 cases | 19 cases |
| William H. Burgess III | 3 cases | 31 cases |
| Elizabeth Jack | 11 cases | 21 cases |
| Evan Frayman | 3 cases | 27 cases |
| Jack Helinger | 14 cases | 13 cases |
| Rebecca Hamilton | 13 cases | 11 cases |
+ 5 more shared judges with smaller appearance counts
Head-to-Head
These attorneys have faced each other in 3 cases.
1 final judgment · 2 dismissed
In those shared cases, Garth R. Goodman was on the petitioner side 0 times and the respondent side 3 times — Cody Emerson the reverse.
Cody Emerson always filed as plaintiff in all 3 matchups.
Most recent shared case filed 2024-03-14
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 Garth R. Goodman
Deduped head-to-head case counts, 2020–2026 docket sample
- Jaime Rodriguez Girgenti1 final judgment · 1 dismissed2 cases
- Richard A. Zacur1 final judgment · 1 dismissed2 cases
- Belinda Lazzara1 final judgment · 1 dismissed2 cases
- Peter N. Meros2 final judgments · 0 dismissed2 cases
Opposite Cody Emerson
Deduped head-to-head case counts, 2020–2026 docket sample
- Sean A. Costis3 final judgments · 2 dismissed5 cases
- Gale H. Moore5 final judgments · 0 dismissed5 cases
- Erin Woolums3 final judgments · 1 dismissed4 cases
- Kerya Koeut4 final judgments · 0 dismissed4 cases
- Paul S. Horning2 final judgments · 1 dismissed3 cases
Based on public court records covering 143 Pinellas County divorce attorneys, 2020–2026 · Data updated May 8, 2026 · How these rankings work