Cary Thomas Piel

Our family had a very disappointing experience with attorney Cary Piel, who was appointed as public defender for a close family member facing serious charges. Over the seven months he had the case, communication was almost nonexistent. He met with his client only once despite multiple court dates, an...d when our family tried to get updates, he was either rude, dismissive, or unable to provide any meaningful information. He also acted inconvenienced when we attempted to share background details that another attorney told us were important for the defense. After months of feeling completely unsupported, we hired a private attorney. The difference was immediate. Within a few weeks, the new attorney met with our family member several times, thoroughly reviewed the discovery, identified that the charges didn’t match the facts, spoke with the district attorney, and secured amended charges along with a resolution that resulted in release based on time served and community supervision. The contrast in effort and professionalism was enormous. Based on our experience, I strongly recommend that anyone assigned to Cary Piel research him carefully and read existing feedback and articles. In our view, he did not provide adequate representation, and it’s deeply concerning to think of how many indigent clients may be affected when they have no ability to hire someone else. It’s also extremely difficult to change public defenders, even when the assigned attorney isn’t meaningfully participating in the case. This was our experience, and we feel others deserve to be aware before placing trust in his representation.