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 | Robert M. ValentineEmerson Valentine | Sean A. CostisSean A. Costis PA |
|---|---|---|
| Years licensedFlorida Bar | 18 | 25 |
| Pinellas dissolutions of recordAll-years dissolution-of-marriage cases | 234 | 449 |
| Active last 12 monthsCases filed in the last year | 0 | 30 |
| Final judgmentsCases ending with a signed final judgment | 6 | 102 |
| DismissedCases closed without a final judgment | 1 | 2 |
| Settlement rate *See caveat below — not a win rate | 33.3% | 46.1% |
| Cases with childrenCustody and timesharing involved | 14 | 89 |
| Expert-witness casesCases with experts in the docket | 3 | 45 |
| Motions per caseAverage filings per case | 0.7 | 2.4 |
| HearingsDocketed hearings across cases | — | — |
| BadgesDeterministic, threshold-based — hover for criteria | — | VeteranHigh volumeVery 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
- Robert M. Valentine has 234 Pinellas dissolution cases of record vs Sean A. Costis's 449 — 215 more cases of record for Sean A. Costis. A larger count means more documented Pinellas dissolutions, nothing more.
- In Hillsborough County, Robert M. Valentine has 2 dissolution cases of record vs Sean A. Costis's 0.
- Robert M. Valentine has been licensed 18 years vs Sean A. Costis's 25 — a 7-year difference in time licensed, not a measure of ability.
- In the last 12 months, Robert M. Valentine appeared in 0 newly filed cases vs Sean A. Costis's 30 — 30 more recent filings for Sean A. Costis.
Filing Style
Analyzed 2020–2026 Pinellas docket sample
- Robert M. Valentine files an average of 0.7 motions per case vs Sean A. Costis's 2.4 — a higher-motion litigation pattern for Sean A. Costis (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
- 2 of Robert M. Valentine's 6 sampled final judgments had a settlement agreement visible in the docket (33.3%).
- 47 of Sean A. Costis's 102 sampled final judgments had a settlement agreement visible in the docket (46.1%).
- Robert M. Valentine's sampled cases: 6 ended in final judgments, 1 closed without one (dismissed).
- Sean A. Costis's sampled cases: 102 ended in final judgments, 2 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 11 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 | Robert M. Valentine | Sean A. Costis |
|---|---|---|
| Steve D. Berlin | 4 cases | 52 cases |
| Elizabeth Jack | 5 cases | 33 cases |
| Brian Gnage | 1 case | 33 cases |
| Rebecca Hamilton | 4 cases | 30 cases |
| Jack Helinger | 1 case | 31 cases |
| David R. Ellis | 5 cases | 10 cases |
| Frederick L. Pollack | 5 cases | 9 cases |
| Julie L. Sercus | 5 cases | 6 cases |
+ 3 more shared judges 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, Robert M. Valentine was on the petitioner side 0 times and the respondent side 2 times — Sean A. Costis the reverse.
2 cases with mixed outcomes — no dominant pattern.
Most recent shared case filed 2022-08-02
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 Robert M. Valentine
Deduped head-to-head case counts, 2020–2026 docket sample
- Adam S. Goldstein2 final judgments · 0 dismissed2 cases
Opposite Sean A. Costis
Deduped head-to-head case counts, 2020–2026 docket sample
- Belinda Lazzara7 final judgments · 0 dismissed7 cases
- Cody Emerson3 final judgments · 2 dismissed5 cases
- William Bennett0 final judgments · 4 dismissed4 cases
- K. Dean Kantaras2 final judgments · 1 dismissed3 cases
- Richard A. Zacur2 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