Warning to first-time clients: For criminal defense, I strongly urge you to read this review. Read all the way through for surprise ending. I recommend you read through all the reviews for this firm to see a clear pattern in regards to criminal defense. The reviews suggest that most clients are lesse...r criminal charges, OVI/DUI, bankruptcy. Additionally, it appears that personal friends/acquaintances have also posted “character reviews”. I hired this firm when a criminal case was proceeding against me. He contacted me right away. After retaining service, communication was horrible and stayed that way. Dan Sobol was originally assigned my case. I did not hear from him for two weeks. I finally received a return call from Mr. Sobol who informed me that he would not be able to handle the case due to a current case and Mr. Luftman would be handling it. He told me this as if I had already been informed of this change but I had not. For those who are new the pre-indictment phase is perhaps the most crucial in the entire process. During this phase, it is the responsibility of the attorney to schedule character witnesses, compile background information, education records, psychological/personality testing and results, good character letters, expert witness testimony regarding tainted evidence, to be introduced at the indictment. Mr. Luftman did none of this, nor did he make any attempts. He was not aware of the date of my indictment, only informed me after it had taken place. After indicted, I was scheduled for arraignment and his plan was to accompany me to turn myself in. He had the date and time wrong so I missed the deadline. I still wanted to turn myself in and he advised me not to. This resulted with police officers showing up at my home at 4am, guns drawn (threatening our 14-year-old son) to arrest me when I was trying to be 100% compliant. We are finding that the only thing he did during the pre-indictment phase was to leave two messages with the detective and a garbled cell phone call with the prosecutor and he couldn’t be sure of everything she said. His inaction has grossly affected the outcome of my case. To recap: after all the time that was lost it was clear to me that he did not have the time to handle my case. I asked him if he wanted to opt-out so I could retain another attorney. He insisted he would “get me through this” and I should trust him. A couple days before my arraignment, he opened up new dialog that I should consider going with a public defender as they had more resources than he could provide. Understand that the fee you pay is strictly his fee and covers nothing additional. I stated I would not consider anything like that until after the arraignment. Forty-five minutes before the arraignment he visited me in the holding area. We went over a few last-minute details and he confirmed that he would be there representing me at the arraignment in 45 minutes. Here’s the shocking ending: he did not show for the arraignment. Rather, a public defender was on the podium and somehow it was listed that I had requested a public defender which is, of course, completely ridiculous. According to Mr. Luftman in our conversations prior to the arraignment, the prosecutor would not be seeking a high bond amount for release. Mr. Luftman even went so far as to say that if the bond was higher than $1,000 he would refund a portion of his fee to cover the cost. I received a very high bond so either there was no conversation regarding the bond amount or the prosecutor took full advantage of his absence. I called his office and even showed up there after my release and have heard nothing to date; he has gone completely silent. I have filed complaints with the CBA and the OSCDC. His instincts as my attorney were terrible and he was generally bungling, making mistakes at every turn. Take this review under advisement as there is the very real possibility he will inflict more damage to your current legal debacle.