J Lawrence Kelly

This lawyer was court appointed on a drug case I had. He told me for months that we would get the case dismissed based on an issue with the drug certification. Subsequently I was arrested on a different matter and once in coustody, Mr Kelly advised me that pleaing out would be in my best interest b...ecause he said it didn't look good now that I had been arrested!! These things should have NOTHING to do with each other! In fact, I couldn't plea out because I had a superior court probation violation pending with serious time to potentially serve. A guilty plea would have forced Superior Court to find me in violation. Thankfully, I know enough about how the system works that I didn't fall into this trap of making his job easy. I had to get into a heated argument with Mr Kelly before he finally agreed to make an oral argument of withdrawing as my counsel. Reluctantly the judge finally accepted his position, granted the motion, and I was appointed another lawyer. Within 2 weeks this new lawyer had me back in court and presented a well prepared motion to dismiss based on procedural violations and my case was dismissed. THANK GOD I DIDN'T LISTEN TO KELLY AND JUST PLEA OUT!! I SWEAR HE WORKS FOR THE PROSECUTION AND JUST DOES NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO HIS CLIENTS. MY NEW LAWYER SAID THERE WASNT ONE SCRAP OF PAPER IN MY FOLDER THAT HE GAVE HIM. LUCKILY I GOT A NEW LAWYER WHO WAS ON THE BALL BUT IM NOT EXAGERATING WHEN I SAY I WAS HIS CLIENT FOR 9 PLUS MONTHS AND HE DIDNT DO AN OUNCE OF WORK. Additionally, he just has an overall bad attitude. Would NOT recommend!!