Michael Palumbo

Armo, your review is vindictive and misleading. You have leveraged a non-issue to trash our firm because you are disappointed that you were found guilty. You had to admit that we did not guarantee you an outcome, because I not only told you that but your signed retainer disclosed that, so you misdirect your negativity towards a trivial ministerial internal error that had nothing at all to do with the quality of our work. Armo came to us as a bundle of nervous kinetic energy, literally hyperventilating because he was on the brink of having his license suspended and needed his license for a living. His license was in jeopardy because, despite being a regular consumer of traffic ticket prosecutions, he was so irresponsible in handling his affairs that he failed to answer his ticket after (1) being handed it with instructions, and (2) being sent two warnings from the DMV to answer the ticket! Armo complains about us, yet his "regular" lawyer is so unprofessional and inefficient that upon going on vacation his operation grinds to a halt. Armo goes on to relate that I reassured him of a favorable outcome - I did. However, this was a favorable outcome regarding preventing his license from being suspended. I guaranteed him that so long as he timely hired us we would make sure his license was not suspended - a promise we delivered on. In saying that I am a "good salesman" and reassured him, Armo is saying that I have a high vocabulary, am articulate, and explained to him in a manner that he understood what we could do for him. Call me crazy, but superior communication skills and delivering on your promises are traits you seek in a lawyer, not one you look to avoid. It is critical that a client timely receives closing information regarding the outcome of a case and how to pay the fine. That is why we have fails safes in place to ensure multiple methods of making such communication. While Armo is correct that we failed to internally update his address, what he FAILS to tell you is that he did timely receive the information via e-mail. He also fails to tell you that we also updated his address with the court, who independent of us also sends the fine notice. In other words, Armo timely received the closing information from us and the court. When he contacted our office with questions about the trial we did not answer him in the "generic" but his questions were answered by me and another lawyer with specificity. That we failed to update his address is a false flag pretext for this negative review. I never denied it, apologized, and took responsibility. I explained to Armo that while we have written policies and procedures for everything, I am not so naive to believe that mistakes never happen. This is why we have in built in redundancy so that if the ball is dropped critical information still gets timely transmitted, and critical evolutions still take place. For example, I am sure that our office has made over 40,000 court appearances. We have never once missed a court date. I also explained to him that I addressed the failure with the employee charged with file update. We don't shut down because the owner or any of our lawyers goes on vacation. Or has a dentist's appointment. Or is hit by a bus. Our operation still keeps ticking and you and your case is still being properly and zealously represented. In fact, we are here and available 24 / 7 / 365. If you have an emergency such as Armo our answer will always be "yes." Yes, we can fix the problem, can avoid a suspension, can get you un-suspended forthwith. In NYC there is no plea bargaining every case goes to trial. As Armo admits, we made numerous court appearances for over 2 years. We pushed the trial back to a point whereby even though he was found guilty his insurer cannot surcharge him. He still saved thousands by preventing insurance increases. He was timely transmitted the closing information. We stand behind the work we did for Armo.