Celine Imelda Samaniego

Shortly after I turned 18, I made a bad decision and paid the price for it with a felony. My life was severely affected from age 18 - 27. It halted my progress in life and limited the jobs I was eligible for. I was never able to get what I would consider a good job. My mom was determined to get my re...cord expunged and about 2 years before she passed, we found Celine Samaniego. Celine fought for me and was successfully able to reduce my felony to a misdemeanor AND expungement, making it as if I had never been convicted of a felony in the first place. Since then, my life completely changed. I now work for the government in the forest service as a wildland firefighter. Something I had always dreamed of doing, but never thought possible. In addition, I was able to regain my 2nd amendment rights, which now allows me to provide protection for myself and my family. Due to the incredible work she put in for me, my life has improved tremendously. Since the case closed, she has even remained a close contact and source for legal advice and referrals for other fields of law. If you have any criminal defense needs, do not hesitate in choosing Celine Samaniego as your attorney. She works with integrity, understanding, compassion and really cares for her clients. I can't thank her enough.

Celine was referred to me by another attorney well known in Southern California. When it comes to expunging Severe past felony charges and Misd. charges with strict probation, please call Celine. She has a good reputation with judges and DA. She was able to expunge probation a felony and misd ahead o...f schedule. She is sincere trustworthy, easy going, and will fight for her cause if you are willing to put in the work. If you need any severe crimes needing to be reduced or you need a good attorney who knows the inner circle politics of Riv County court officials Celine is it.

I made a down payment of $1000 and she didn't even show up for my arraignment in Murrieta. After much complaining she finally did appear for my sentencing. This was all back in 2007 and she advised me to plead guilty to possession of a controlled substance and take a diversion under pc1000 which she ...told me would not have an affect on my immigration status. However she was wrong about that, she also did nothing about making sure that the controlled substance was not named, it was. All this now is coming down to the very good possibility of me being deported. Ineffective counsel and no show gets no recommendations on my behalf.

Ms. Samaniego was recommended to me by a friend, who had previously used her for his robbery case. He spent several days in jail and Ms. Samaniego was able to get him time served and minimal fine. I used Ms. Samaniego for my own DUI case where she had my DUI dismissed and I plead to a lesser charge ...and had no repercussions from the DUI. I have since recommended her to another friend for her own drug conviction. She has personally saved the lives of my friends and I! She is an angel!

I hired Celine without meeting her face to face out of desperation to help my Daughter. I paid her lot of money I did not have, and it turned out the Public Defender could have done a better job. She never went to see my Daughter, instead sent another Lawyer who was totally unprepared, knew nothing a...bout the case. Never talked to her prior to the hearing, just told her to plead guilty. As a result she got a DUI conviction for having an MD prescribed medication on her. They never got back to me with the result of her blood test. She overlooked and missed the next court appearance, and it was handled by a Public Defender. I am sorry I wasted my money on this kind of poor legal representation, and did not work with the Public Defender. I would not recommend her.