Steven Gildin

Child Protective Services took me to Family Court on some nasty, hyper inflated abuse charges and took out an Order of Protection forbidding me to see my son. I found Gildin through Prepaid Legal. During our initial meeting, he came off like a real shark, which was what I figured I needed. The... first alarm bell should have gone off when he said the case would take eighteen months. No lawyer can predict how long a case will take. Two weeks to eighteen months. The second aalrm should have been when he called me the next day on my cell phone to follow up. A good lawyer that can always use business but is not desperate for it will neither turn cartwheels in the aisle for your business or refuse it. The third alarm should have gone off in my head when I made the decision to retain him and he insisted on meeting my parents to pick up the retainer. I'll discuss that in further detail later. 12/1/2009. Family Court. Look at the trial transcript and he was certainly advocating for me zealously and aggressively. Then came the off the record robing room conference, which should be outlawed but that's another discussion. The case was adjourned, then at noon Gildin told me they were talking about making my wife a defendant in the case, and recommended I have a hearing to modify the Order of Protection, but didn't want me to testify due to my son's upcoming interview with the District Attorney. Family Court is civil, so the strongest adverse inference from failure to testify may be drawn. He advised me to come back at 4 p.m. He sent a lawyer that had been admitted to practice the year before. In my opinion he told her to sit down so he could increase billable hours. She did virtually nothing. No adverse inference may be drawn where none exists, and the court papers and caseworker's testimony were so utterly devoid of details, she could have blown the case against me to pieces. Her cross examination was more like Saturday morning brunch. Particularly noteworthy is that the caseworker put down on the court papers my son was hugging the girls at school and putting his head on their chests, testified to this, then on cross said he was attempting to grab the breasts of grown staff members; his associate could have blown them up on this alone. I left court at 9 p.m. no closer to my goal. Five days after court I received his bill. He charged over an hour and a half to meet my parents at his insistence to pick up his retainer, and fourteen hours for court when we were in court eight hours. Six days after that I discharged him. I immediately wrote him to obtain the balance of the retainer paid him. It took five months, one letter, and four telephone calls to the grievance committee. I am not an angry litigant who lost and is looking for revenge. The Child Advocacy Center found no evidence of physical abuse or physical contact against my son by me, the local District Attorney found no reason to file criminal charges against me, and in front of the next lawyer I retained, the psychologist concluded I had not abused my son. I was given a six month ACD and got my name cleared in the State Central Registry.. The irony of it is if he hadn't been so greedy and unethical, he would have made three times more because there was enough legitimate work on my case. It's a very bad thing when you pay a lot of money to be betrayed. I gave him a "Fair" because the lawyer who later successfully defended me told me Mr. G at least punched enough holes in CPS' case so my son's lawyer concluded I was probably being railroaded.