Nicholas George Madiou

It was Nick's negligence and lack of care or consideration to my case's specific details that earns him this review from me. Moreover, at sentencing, he did not follow the protocol that one's attorney is supposed to follow, which I learned after speaking to other attorneys after my sentencing was ove...r. For example, he did not object to clear conflicts of interest (the Judge was friends with the "victim" congressman and they were discussing irrelevant personal details with regards to their friendship during the trial), and when the judge clearly indicated that he did not care if I get drug tested or not, Nick Madiou was supposed to ask the judge to check a specific box in the sentencing form, considering I had no prior issues with substance abuse (which Nick failed to do). I want to say Nick does the bare minimum, and he seemed to be a nice person at first, but week by week (and especially after the retainer payment), his negligence on important matters got progressively worse, at my expense. For example, he was the one that initially made me turn in my USA passport to the federal government. But weeks later, he kept asking me if I was really a USA citizen in a very demeaning tone (not the kind of tone you would expect using with a colored client) after his meeting with the court appointed officer. In case one is wondering, you can't have a USA passport, and not be a USA citizen. Small details such as these were carelessly overlooked consistently with Nick. For all these mentioned mistakes and mishaps on Nicholas Madiou's part, I can NOT in good faith recommend Nicholas Madiou. In hindsight, I should have gone with a free federal defender. Contrary to public opinion, they are actually NOT overworked or stressed out when it comes to Federal cases. And they are usually from Yale/Harvard law and are very knowledgable on how the law actually works. I would have saved a lot of money AND gotten much better counsel.

Irrespective of the stage in which you are currently situated within your case, I strongly recommend retaining another attorney. If you have fully paid your legal fees and can afford to find another lawyer, I would strongly suggest doing so. We retained Nick on behalf of a loved one, and we strongly ...feel that he was a weak, complacent legal advocate. Although he was responsive in most cases, we felt strongly throughout our time with him that he was doing the bare minimum, if that, to help us. We even felt that we did more research on our case than he did. Now that we have had a chance to reflect on the case, we realize that we are not at all confident that he did everything in his power to advocate for us. Not only do we feel that he did not have our best interest in mind, but also there were several instances in which we made specific requests and we felt that we did not receive a response until we followed up. Prior to this, we had absolutely no experience with criminal law, and we made the mistake of trusting Nick to take the lead. I imagine that an ideal criminal defense lawyer would be steadfast, quick on their feet and a vigorous advocate for their clients. We strongly feel that Nick carries none of these characteristics and is instead the exact opposite. Based on our interactions with him, I would not be surprised if he did little to nothing behind closed doors to fight for our best interests. We feel that he led us to believe that a certain outcome was extremely likely, even noting that he would "bet his house" on it. We proceeded based on this legal advice. When the case did not play out the way we expected, however, we feel that he offered no understanding or solace. They knew that we anticipated certain results because we relied solely on the false confidence we felt they provided us, yet we feel that they did nothing to help us move forward afterwards. Choosing a criminal defense attorney to help you or a loved one is an incredibly important decision. My loved ones and I were left extremely distressed and traumatized from working with Nick, and we can only hope that sharing our horrid experience will prevent others from making the same mistake.