You might want to grab a cup of coffee, sit back, in order to read my story. Upon being released for Orange County Court for criminal charges made against me, a few days later, I received a battery of mail from a bunch of defense attorneys looking for me to hire them. I started thumbing through the mail picking out ones I thought might be a good fit. I checked their Google reviews and if they were good, I filled out the form on their website for a consult. This was last week, 9/1/26, today is 9/7/26 and I still haven’t heard back from anyone. This is a “red flag” already that these attorneys have not even taken me on as a client yet and already they are not returning phone calls. Remember, they sent me these cards, folders, and other advertisements to drum up business and create income. I moved down here from NYC a few years ago, so I really don’t know anyone to ask for a good attorney. So I took to the internet, I did a Google search for best defense attorney in Orlando and I found one firm that had over 1300 5 star Google reviews, so I wrote that one down. Later on, when checking again, from out of nowhere it seemed, Longwell Lawyers populated my search. What really caught my eye was that a couple of the attorneys were former prosecutors in the Orange County, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. These attorneys would know the inner workings of this court along with former colleagues they had previously worked with in the criminal division to which my case was assigned. I filled out the consultation form for the first firm on their website. They contacted me within 10 minutes. I spoke to the person who asked me a bunch of questions but never told me her title and she explained to me the process and what they offered. They never told me who the attorney would be representing me. I had already read all the bio’s of the attorneys at the firm. She sent me a text asking for a deposit to represent me. At the same time, I had also filled out a consultation form for Longwell Lawyers. About an hour or so later, an actual lawyer, Attorney Melissa Zeglen called me and spent about 45 minutes on the phone answering questions and explaining what to expect moving forward. She never put pressure on me to use her firm. Matter of fact, she said if you use us or someone else, these are the things you need to do. She asked if I wanted to come in the next day to meet with her and the founding attorney of the firm, Mark Longwell? So I made an appointment for the next day. I did call the other firm the next morning and asked if I could come in for a consultation as to have a backup plan. The same woman from the day before asked me why, didn’t I answer all your questions? I explained I just wanted to meet the attorney to get a feel for them and it seemed as though I was bothering them,a big turnoff at that point. I met with Melissa, she went over my case, explained what she could do for me, and once again how I should proceed if I used her firm or another. She explained that I still had a “No Contact” order. I explained my wife dropped that. She explained that was the civil order, the criminal one was still in effect. She mentioned that that was the most important thing to do first for reasons I won’t mention. I trusted my gut, decided these were the right attorneys for me and signed a contract immediately so they could represent me. She explained that she would work on the No Contact order and at least get it to a No Hostile Contact order that afternoon . She said call me anytime if I had questions or concerns and it was genuine, not some lawyerly bullshit. The next day around 12:30pm, Melissa called me to advise me she filed a bunch of motions and sent me a copy of each. At around 2:00pm, Melissa called me to tell me the case was dismissed or here in Florida a “No Information Filed”. I was in shock, in dismay, in disbelief. I asked Melissa what had taken her so long to get this done? That part is a joke.
read moreread less
Own or work here?
