Raymond A Buenaventura

In my assessment, Mr. Buenaventura is a competent *trial* attorney. However, I cannot give him a positive review. He dragged out a complex multiple misdemeanor case out for over a year. He was unresponsive to text messages, phone calls and voicemails. When we eventually did get a hold of him, he wou...ld give us inconsistent advice that just seemed to push the case later. As an innocent person, I found his extremely poor professionalism created additional and unnecessary extreme anxiety for me and my family. Additionally, Mr. Buenaventura seemed strongly motivated to push my case to trial over settlement. He was evasive and dismissive of us when we asked if he would negotiate a deal with the DA. In retrospect, we are suspicious he was financially motivated to push the case to trial to receive another $5k + $250/hr fee. We sought outside counsel and ultimately fired, Mr. Buenaventura. Thank God we did. The other attorney (Mr. Steven Chase) was able to use the expert witness report to get ALL CHARGES DISMISSED before the the next pre-trial conference. The proof is in the result. Ray did not treat us well and was an objectively inferior lawyer to Mr. Chase, by every measure. Mr. Buenaventura receives 2 stars because he was initially attentive to our case and was responsible for identifying our expert witness who was key in proving my innocence and dismissing all charges. I genuinely wish Mr. Buenaventura well and hope he learns to treat his clients with more respect and integrity in the future.