Ira C. Podlofsky

I would like to be straightforward about Ira. He got me money for my case, he ultimately did what he should have done BUT he was not pleasant to deal with. He was definitely arrogant, obnoxious, didn't want you to question him and ultimately someone that I would not recommend to anyone in my busines...s circle. I have no idea if he is sanctioned by the bar or has tax liens against him but I do know that hearing this is not surprising after having dealt with him. Be careful when connecting with this lawyer, do your due diligence and caveat emptor

I am an attorney, but I do not handle matrimonial, so I hired this mess to handle a simple, uncontested divorce for my girlfriend. Because he was referred by a dear friend, I foolishly did not investigate him. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I MADE. He took the money, but never successfully completed... the matter. He was completely unresponsive and when he was finally fired I had to chase him to get the file back. And, he failed to send the complete file. If he would screw a fellow attorney, there is no question he would do the same to you. He has filed for bankruptcy and has outstanding NYS Tax liens filed against him. All of this can be verified via online searches. He is incompetent and is a financial mess. Do you want to entrust your important legal affairs, and your money to a lawyer that has tax liens and a slew of complaints and lawsuits filed against him? As a member of the bar, attorneys like myself are expected to be lawful and trustworthy and to do the right thing for our clients. He has none of these qualities. Avoid retaining him at all costs, EVEN IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS FOOLISH ENOUGH TO RECOMMEND HIM.

We hired this lying lawyer 2 years ago to handle a simple, uncontested divorce. He took our money, told us the matter was filed, gave periodic updates, such as "should be finalized by holidays" and "will be done by 1q 2014" when in fact he had not even filed the papers. At one point, he ignored our ...inquiries relating to the status for approximately 4 months until he was threatened with a grievance before the Judicial Disciplinary Committee. Only then did he finally respond and a few months later finally filed the papers. Naturally, due to his incompetence, the Court rejected the documents, and now he is back to being the unresponsive sloth he was before. When he finally does respond to a client inquiry, it is always wrapped around some story about his secretary's health or his lying girlfriend's daughter's health, all of which are irrelevant to his negligence and probably untrue based on his repeated lies relating to the status of the matters he is handling.

A recent post by “John” is 100% correct. My Grandmother passed away in 2007 due to a wrongful death which lead to the retention of Ira Podlofsky’s office to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit. At the time, my mother (the decedent’s daughter) entered into a lawsuit with several defendants to pursu...e the case. The case was assigned an index number and Judge and at some point was consolidated. That’s basically all that was done on the case over the course of 7 years. A couple of motions here and there mostly made on the defense’s behalf and, if we’re lucky, maybe one appearance by plaintiff’s counsel and one Examination Before Trial, which was of a non-party witness. Also, within these past 7 years, my mother spoke to Ira maybe, and I say MAYBE 5 times. She would call him for updated statuses on the case and she never received any phone calls from him. He NEVER returns your calls. His office manager/secretary/receptionist always gives you an excuse why Ira cannot speak to you: he’s either in court or with a client or at a meeting. He was supposed to meet at my mother’s house on more than one occasion to discuss the case and just never showed. My mother had to look into the court system on her own to actually find out what was happening with the case. What a disgrace! Oh yes, Ira did mail her a couple of correspondence letters - letters of apology to say how sorry he was for not working on her case due to his bankruptcy issues, his marriage problems and partnerships who left him. He promised he would continue full force with her case and have it moving and settled in no time. As of this year - 2014 - NOTHING! There was still no EBT of my mother – who was the sole witness in this case. How is that even possible? Every time my mother spoke to the office manager/secretary/receptionist about EBT dates, she always said to my mother to pick 3 dates and go with that. Is this even professional? Needless to say, nothing came out of any of those dates – no EBTs or conferences. My mother tried retaining other lawyers but no one would take the case because it was too far along with no action taken on it. A attorney friend of the family pulled the file and very little paperwork was found. He himself couldn’t believe it. What does that say about how much work was actually done on this case over the course of 7 years? 7 YEARS! Once again, my mother checked the status of her case and noticed there was an appearance scheduled for March 5, 2014. She was never notified of this appearance date or what the purpose of it was for. Needless to say, the end result is the case has been disposed of because there was an NAP – in non-attorney language this means Non Appearance by Plaintiff. Ira Podlofsky never showed up to the appearance. When the office manager/secretary/receptionist was questioned why he didn’t appear at the conference before the Judge and defense attorneys she told my mother Ira never even knew about it! What kind of attorney doesn’t even know when there is an appearance on the calendar? To me, it cannot be an attorney who is up on his client’s cases or even one who cares about his client’s cases. Now, I am her son writing this complaint because, unfortunately, my mother has just passed away in March. Ira does have other incidents against his record and was found guilty of an admonition and codes he broke as an attorney. You can look these up for yourself. Doesn’t an attorney take an oath to be the best attorney he can be for his clients and to practice to the best of his ability? Not in this case. I urge you to do your research before even thinking of retaining Ira Podlofksy. I’m really not sure how he sleeps at night. He should not have the given right to call himself an attorney and I’m hoping for the day he cannot practice law anymore. I believe I probably could have done a better job representing my grandmother pro se.