Carla Ozuna

Head of Family Law | San Antonio Divorce & Child Custody Attorney

When a family law case involves your children, your home, your finances, or your future, experience matters—but so does understanding how families and the court system actually work.

Carla Ozuna has practiced family law for 8 years and has handled more than 700 family law cases. As Head of the Family Law section at Soyars & Morgan Law, she represents clients in complex divorce, high-conflict child custody disputes, modifications, enforcements, protective orders, and other contested family law matters.

But Carla’s experience with families in crisis began long before she became an attorney.

Before practicing law, Carla worked as an investigator for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS/CPS), where she managed more than 100 active cases at a time. She later worked as a juvenile probation officer and, while attending law school, interned with the Bexar County staff attorney’s office.

That background gives Carla a perspective few family law attorneys can offer.

She has seen family disputes from multiple sides of the system—as an investigator, as a court-system professional, as an attorney, and in her own life as a divorced mother.

Today, after more than 700 family law cases, she uses that experience to help mothers and fathers navigate some of the most difficult disputes of their lives.

Complex Divorce and Property Cases

Carla also represents clients in contested and complex divorces, including cases involving businesses, real estate, retirement accounts, investments, significant income, separate-property claims, reimbursement issues, and concerns about hidden or undisclosed assets.

Her undergraduate education included a double major in economics and philosophy from St. Mary’s University. That analytical background complements her litigation experience when a divorce requires understanding complicated financial information and determining what evidence is necessary to protect a client’s financial future.

After handling more than 700 family law matters, Carla understands that divorce litigation is rarely just about dividing property.

The decisions made during a divorce can affect where someone lives, how they support themselves, their relationship with their children, and their financial security for years to come.

Experience That Changes How Carla Looks at a Case

Carla’s path to becoming a family lawyer was not conventional.

She worked for DFPS. She served as a juvenile probation officer. She worked within the Bexar County court system. She attended law school while working full time and raising her child as a single parent.

She has also experienced divorce herself.

Those experiences matter because Carla understands that the person sitting across from her is not simply a petitioner, respondent, conservator, or case number.

It is someone whose life may feel like it is coming apart.

Her job is to bring structure to that chaos.

Carla listens carefully, identifies what actually matters, develops a strategy around the client’s goals, and prepares the evidence necessary to pursue those goals.

Prepared to Go to Court

Eight years and more than 700 family law cases have also taught Carla that being aggressive and being effective are not necessarily the same thing.

Some disputes should be resolved.

Others need to be litigated.

The skill is knowing the difference.

Carla does not believe in creating conflict simply to create conflict. Family law litigation is expensive, emotionally exhausting, and can sometimes make already difficult relationships worse.

But when an opposing party is unreasonable, a parent-child relationship is threatened, important assets are at risk, or allegations need to be challenged, Carla is prepared to go to court.

The goal is not to fight about everything. The goal is to know what is worth fighting for—and to be ready when that fight becomes necessary.

When the Case Looks Bad on Paper

Some of Carla’s most challenging cases have involved clients who came to her believing no one—including their previous attorney—had truly listened to them.

In one custody case, a mother came to Carla facing substantial obstacles. There had been a prior positive drug test, an unfavorable custody evaluation, competing allegations involving domestic violence, and serious questions about whether she would retain primary custody of her child.

The case looked bad on paper.

But the client insisted that the paper did not tell the whole story.

Carla listened.

She and her team developed evidence concerning the mother’s circumstances, obtained evidence supporting her sobriety, investigated issues surrounding her postpartum condition, and developed financial evidence concerning the father.

After an approximately eight-hour contested hearing, the mother retained primary custody of her child.

That case illustrates an important part of Carla’s approach:

When the facts look bad at first glance, that is not necessarily a reason to stop investigating. Sometimes it is a reason to investigate harder.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different.

Protective With Clients. Aggressive When Necessary.

One former client described Carla as:

“Protective, assertive, kind, and noble.”

That combination captures much of Carla’s philosophy toward family law.

Clients need an attorney who understands the emotional reality of what they are experiencing. But empathy alone does not win a contested hearing.

The lawyer also has to prepare.

After eight years practicing family law and more than 700 cases, Carla knows that preparation often determines whether important evidence gets discovered, whether weaknesses in the opposing party’s story are exposed, and whether a client’s story is effectively presented to the court.

Her clients deserve both: an attorney who will listen to them and a litigator who will be ready when it is time to walk into the courtroom. 

Talk With Carla Ozuna About Your Family Law Case

If you are facing a divorce, high-conflict custody dispute, modification, enforcement action, protective order, or another serious family law matter in San Antonio or Central Texas, Carla and the family law team at Soyars & Morgan Law can help you understand your options and develop a strategy for what comes next.

8 years practicing family law. More than 700 cases handled. Former DFPS investigator. Former juvenile probation officer. Family law trial attorney. Head of Family Law at Soyars & Morgan Law.

When your children, property, and future are at stake, preparation matters.

Representative Results: When Preparation Makes the Difference

Every family law case is different, and past results cannot guarantee what will happen in another case. But these cases illustrate Carla’s approach to difficult custody disputes: listen carefully, investigate the facts, and be prepared to prove the client’s case in court.

A Child Wanted to Stay With His Mother. His Father Blamed the Mother.

In one contested custody case, the parents shared custody of their son, who was struggling with mental-health issues. As he grew older, the child became increasingly resistant to spending time at his father’s home and expressed a desire to remain primarily with his mother.

The father disputed that the child’s concerns were genuine. Instead, he accused the mother of creating conflict and interfering with his relationship with their son.

That distinction mattered. Was the mother manufacturing a custody dispute—or was there a legitimate reason the child no longer wanted to follow the existing arrangement?

The dispute ultimately went before the court.

Carla presented the evidence supporting her client’s position and the circumstances affecting the child. At the conclusion of the case, Carla’s client prevailed and was awarded primary custody of her son.

For Carla, cases like this reinforce an important principle in custody litigation: when parents tell completely different stories, preparation and evidence matter.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

She Came to Carla Believing She Was Going to Lose Her Child

Some of Carla’s clients come to her after being represented by another attorney because they feel their case has not been adequately investigated, prepared, or understood.

One mother came to Carla convinced she was going to lose primary custody of her child.

And on paper, the case looked extremely difficult.

She had a prior positive drug test. A custody evaluation was unfavorable to her. She alleged that her husband had been abusive, but when police responded to one incident, he had a broken nose—creating evidence that appeared to contradict her account.

The mother nevertheless insisted that the evidence did not tell the full story.

She told Carla that she was not using drugs. She believed serious postpartum mental-health issues had contributed to what had happened. She also claimed that her husband had substantial financial resources that he was not fully disclosing.

Most importantly, she felt that no one was listening to her.

Carla did.

Rather than simply accepting how the case appeared on paper, Carla and her team began developing the evidence.

The mother underwent hair-follicle testing that supported her claim that she was no longer using drugs. Evidence was developed concerning the postpartum issues she had experienced. Carla also investigated the financial circumstances of the father and developed evidence that he was underemployed and had substantial financial resources that had not been disclosed.

The case ultimately proceeded to an approximately eight-hour contested hearing.

Carla was able to present the evidence and give the court a much more complete picture than the one that existed when the client first came to her.

The mother retained primary custody of her child.

The significance of this case goes beyond the result.

It illustrates why Carla does not assume that a difficult-looking case is a hopeless case.

Sometimes the evidence initially presented against a client tells the whole story. Sometimes it doesn’t. Carla’s job is to find out.

That means listening to the client, testing what the client says against the evidence, looking for information that may have been overlooked, and preparing to present the complete story in court.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every family law case depends on its own facts and circumstances.