Bruce Howard Guttman

Bruce and his wife handled my divorce and for the first year, I was impressed. He is a smooth talker and exudes confidence. My ex took the approach that once the divorce wasn't working out to his advantage, he was generally uncooperative. He stalled and didn't show up for court and that's when Bruce... began to disappoint me. He never acted in a way where he tried to expedite the process. In hindsight, Bruce faciliated the stall tactics of my ex because it drove up his bill and when I got another and another and another in a series of delays, Bruce would shrug his shoulders and blame "the system". To be more specific, for the first 4 months of my separation, my ex and i went to a mediator. The mediator got about 70% through the process of writing the stipulation of settlement when my ex stopped meeting with the mediator. By the time I retained Bruce, I handed him the work in process stip and Bruce used this to complete my divorce over the next 2 years. But the stip I gave him placed our divorce in State Supreme Court and not in Family Court so when my ex wouldn't pay child support, I went to Family Court where they said "this court just not have jurisdiction on your case". They were right. I went to Bruce to explain and he said "we mistakenly copied your stip word for word from your mediator and it had a mistake we missed but we will correct it-sorry". And to his credit, their office did fix it over the next 6 months and as they did, they admitted it was their mistake so imagine my shock when they tried to bill me $4000 for correcting their error! Bottom line- I don't trust him and was never impressed by his court behavior. My belief was that his ultimate priority was his billable hours. Stay away and find another attorney.

Bruce Guttman is a partner in a small husband and wife law firm. My expierience with him is difficult to summarize, but the short version is that he was my divorce attorney for three years. After three years time and 80K spent, I am not one step closer to being divorced than I was when I first retain...ed him. Our first day in court he had to reply to the judge to give my name and other basic preliminary information. He got my name, income and place of business totally incorrect as he mixed me up with another client. Shame on me for not realizing on that first day that it was a precursor for the next three years. I have a pattern of incidents where Bruce Guttman has shown that his sole objective is billable hours and not results. Yet when he talks about his courtroom behavior he describes himself as a tiger. It's baseless and laughable. Every setback and negative result is seen by him as nothing more than a "flaw in the system". I found most revolting a consistent pattern of making confident predictions that were each and every time not inaccurate, but the polar opposite of what truly happened. Every meeting where we prepped for the next round of court he would bait me by telling me what good thing was going to happen in court next but that I first had to get my balance down to zero, which I did. And every court appearance resulted in a 2-3 month adjournment where nothing progressed, except emptying my bank account further. If you challenge his tactics, he will schmooze and charm, but it is the equivalent of getting a back rub while someone is stabbing you in the back. My comments are not spiteful, but spoken as someone who was truly scammed by an incompetent and negligible attorney. My distatse for his behavior is not due to his failure to win my divorce, because it wasnt about winning it, it was about ending it, and he did neither. Yet today as he was telling me that my balance is too high for him to continue representing me, he actually spoke with confidence as he told me "i wouldnt have done one thing differrently". During several conversations he explained to me that the high cost that he charges is for his representation, not for his results. So if you want results, avoid this law firm.

I met Bruce while searching for a highly qualified and caring matrimonial attorney. During my consultation all of my questions and concerns were accurately addressed. I immediately knew that I met "the best of the best" and that Bruce was the attorney that I was in need of. Bruce was, and continu...es to be the most professional, knowledgeable, diligent, meticulous, courteous, pleasant attorney that I have ever encountered. I was always impressed with the quality of Bruce's work and ethics. I learned that divorce matters occur outside of the normal Monday through Friday 9AM to 5PM schedule. Bruce was always available, whether it be on Saturday, Sunday or in the evenings. I thank Bruce for my sanity. I could not have survived divorce without having a professional attorney and "friend" on my side. I recommend Bruce to anyone in need of acquiring legal representation of the highest quality. I wish Bruce continued success with his law practice.

I was a recent client of the law firm Guttman and Guttman to finalize my divorce. My attorney Steve Garguilo was inexperienced in the court room and although I was finally able to settle the case after a year and a half, they failed to follow through with the stipulations and blamed it on the judge.... After I payed in full my balance (before I received the actual divorce papers) they completely refused my phone calls and Bruce Guttman called me back once after I wrote a letter to every agency I could only to try and save his reputation. he then admitted to me that the case was screwed up and good luck trying to get the judge to admit the mistake. Bruce then told me that he can fix the case only if I pay him an additional $450 an hour for an undetermined amount of time to handle it, only he can do it for me. The other Lawyer Steven Garguilo also made several charges to me on phone calls that were never made and then lied to me about conversations that took place from other court personel that was supposed to resolve the situation but because it was "extra" work on his behalf and I was already paid in full he decided not to do it. I conducted my own investigation from court workers who explained to me they just wanted to get the case over with. I currently have a case pending in the Suffolk County Bar Association due to excessive billing practices in regards to phone calls alledgedly made, in which a copy of phone company records will show.