Michael Ralph Bruggeman

Bruggeman's only concern while representing me seemed only to be the money that he would receive from my dealing with him. He demanded half of his legal fee up front, and then after only two weeks told me to pay the other half, which I followed through with, if anything because of his exhausting, inc...essant nature. He had no problem repeatedly calling me about his fee, but when I tried calling him to inquire about certain aspects of the case he was never available. He was absolutely unprofessional in that respect, as he would always claim to be on vacation or busy otherwise. Finally, after a year of inactivity, and just general unresponsiveness from his side, he called me up telling me to come to court, without any prior notice, to sign for a plea deal. The charge I was facing was a misdemeanor, and I had no prior record, and still he was unable to help me. I got a substantial amount of hours community service as a result of my charge, and an ugly record that has since made obtaining employment difficult. He is absolutely apathetic in his practice, and will do nothing for your defense. He will just collect your money, and sit on his posterior, making excuses for every bit of negligence that he is responsible for.

Mike Bruggeman is a lawyer whose main focus is payment.  He will act, engage the client and work hard to get his money.  Once paid he becomes unresponsive, passive and it can even be characterizes as ambivalent.  One item that Bruggeman does do well is spend the funds he is given.  During our pre...-trial preparation he went on more vacations than 5 families combined.  During our year interaction up to and during the trial, Bruggeman continued to ignore the wishes and directions of the family, while never actually conveying the reasoning of "his" defense to anyone except himself.  Even his own paid investigator could not understand the rational of the defense or support its execution.  To be clear the case was framed as a 2nd degree murder trial, tried as such, but resulted due to his "bumbling" with 1st degree w/life.  Don't hire unless your looking to ensure failure and imprisonment.