He was all about the money and paying him alot of it. Sitting in court waiting he was working on other clients cases and charged me for the time. Never answered emails and was very condescending. After 7 months, 3 days before trial he gave me a letter saying he didnt want to represent me at trial. I scrambled and got a new attorney in the three days and he refused to release my file to my new attorney before I paid over $60,000. When I paid what we agreed to, he still refused to turn my file over saying he got a new bill for an additional $11,000 and refused to turn over my file till I paid that. This all three days before trial. I ended up paying him over $85,000 for basically nothing. My new attorney had to start from scratch. My new attorney was fantastic actually getting the case dismissed when Blackman told me plead guilty or face prison.

The bizarre thing was that I feared nothing was being done so I was offerring to help any way I could and I was assured that all research was being done, etc., to further my case. However, that did not seem to be the case when the case started and went on. After the first day Mr. Blackman asked if I wanted to go to the library to do research. Apparently he needed help. At that point I was too tired and distraught to work overnight. He should have asked earlier, but maybe he thought I would fire him. I may have. The case could have been settled, but Blackman made a big fight of it. He probably knew that if he asked earlier I would have fired him, so constantly assured me that everything that needed to be done was being done. However, obviously it was not. Also, I suppose every time he assured me he intended to "get around to it", but never did. In any case, mid trial I was being asked to figure my own case to help this so called attorney. WOW. That really blew me away. The attorney permitted the constant misstating of the law by the District Attorney and failed to object. It was as if he had not cracked a book to learn anything about the law. What a disaster it was. After the case was over I did crack those books and learned he had completely botched the case. It was simple research that a lawyer experienced, blah blah blah as Mr. Blackman claims to be could easily find in a few minutes, at most an hour, maybe a little more. He never took the time. He just bumbled into court all sure of himself with a factually innocent client. He also failed to make any efforts to prepare or go over testimony. Apparently he does NOT know how to do that, or research a case. He'll expect you to do all the work to get yourself off. During the litigation he was still trying to issue subpoenas and things which should have been done beforehand. He was unable to do so. He was too late. However, he also did not "fall on the sword" and tell the judge he needed a continuance and why (that he had not done his job). Apparently it is more important to Blackman to keep up appearances than to serve the interests of his clients. This lawyer is a disaster. If you want a lawyer who thinks he is better than other people, but too dumb to realize he's not really very smart at all this is your man. And he'll charge you a HUGE amount of money as well, and when you try to go away after he screws up your case and your life he'll sue you for 10s of thousands of dollars or more, all for the incompetent "work" he performs which you'd be better off doing yourself. Do yourself a favor and save the money and go with the public defender. If you don't qualify for the Public Defender then look for ANYBODY else. Probably most troubling is an element of bigotry in Blackman. He thinks he's superior to everybody else and though he was superior to the brand new DA opposing him. However, that brand new DA was able to effectively violate the law right and left with improper instructions, improper statements of what the law is not, and improper questioning and more including sheltering witnesses we needed from subpoenas. Blackman claimed the DA's actions were "unethical" but was unable to do a damn thing about them. If I wasn't paying the price for his incompetence, it would have been quite entertaining watching that brand new DA kick Blackman. There could be a movie about it. It might be pretty good. Worst of all, he still thinks he's better than everybody else even as he loses. He doesn't have a clue. But he's all about the money -- your money -- and he will sue you too even as he ruins your case and life by being so incompetent and lazy.

He was all about the money and paying him alot of it. Sitting in court waiting he was working on other clients cases and charged me for the time. Never answered emails and was very condescending. After 7 months, 3 days before trial he gave me a letter saying he didnt want to represent me at trial. I scrambled and got a new attorney in the three days and he refused to release my file to my new attorney before I paid over $60,000. When I paid what we agreed to, he still refused to turn my file over saying he got a new bill for an additional $11,000 and refused to turn over my file till I paid that. This all three days before trial. I ended up paying him over $85,000 for basically nothing. My new attorney had to start from scratch. My new attorney was fantastic actually getting the case dismissed when Blackman told me plead guilty or face prison.

The bizarre thing was that I feared nothing was being done so I was offerring to help any way I could and I was assured that all research was being done, etc., to further my case. However, that did not seem to be the case when the case started and went on. After the first day Mr. Blackman asked if I wanted to go to the library to do research. Apparently he needed help. At that point I was too tired and distraught to work overnight. He should have asked earlier, but maybe he thought I would fire him. I may have. The case could have been settled, but Blackman made a big fight of it. He probably knew that if he asked earlier I would have fired him, so constantly assured me that everything that needed to be done was being done. However, obviously it was not. Also, I suppose every time he assured me he intended to "get around to it", but never did. In any case, mid trial I was being asked to figure my own case to help this so called attorney. WOW. That really blew me away. The attorney permitted the constant misstating of the law by the District Attorney and failed to object. It was as if he had not cracked a book to learn anything about the law. What a disaster it was. After the case was over I did crack those books and learned he had completely botched the case. It was simple research that a lawyer experienced, blah blah blah as Mr. Blackman claims to be could easily find in a few minutes, at most an hour, maybe a little more. He never took the time. He just bumbled into court all sure of himself with a factually innocent client. He also failed to make any efforts to prepare or go over testimony. Apparently he does NOT know how to do that, or research a case. He'll expect you to do all the work to get yourself off. During the litigation he was still trying to issue subpoenas and things which should have been done beforehand. He was unable to do so. He was too late. However, he also did not "fall on the sword" and tell the judge he needed a continuance and why (that he had not done his job). Apparently it is more important to Blackman to keep up appearances than to serve the interests of his clients. This lawyer is a disaster. If you want a lawyer who thinks he is better than other people, but too dumb to realize he's not really very smart at all this is your man. And he'll charge you a HUGE amount of money as well, and when you try to go away after he screws up your case and your life he'll sue you for 10s of thousands of dollars or more, all for the incompetent "work" he performs which you'd be better off doing yourself. Do yourself a favor and save the money and go with the public defender. If you don't qualify for the Public Defender then look for ANYBODY else. Probably most troubling is an element of bigotry in Blackman. He thinks he's superior to everybody else and though he was superior to the brand new DA opposing him. However, that brand new DA was able to effectively violate the law right and left with improper instructions, improper statements of what the law is not, and improper questioning and more including sheltering witnesses we needed from subpoenas. Blackman claimed the DA's actions were "unethical" but was unable to do a damn thing about them. If I wasn't paying the price for his incompetence, it would have been quite entertaining watching that brand new DA kick Blackman. There could be a movie about it. It might be pretty good. Worst of all, he still thinks he's better than everybody else even as he loses. He doesn't have a clue. But he's all about the money -- your money -- and he will sue you too even as he ruins your case and life by being so incompetent and lazy.

He was all about the money and paying him alot of it. Sitting in court waiting he was working on other clients cases and charged me for the time. Never answered emails and was very condescending. After 7 months, 3 days before trial he gave me a letter saying he didnt want to represent me at trial. I scrambled and got a new attorney in the three days and he refused to release my file to my new attorney before I paid over $60,000. When I paid what we agreed to, he still refused to turn my file over saying he got a new bill for an additional $11,000 and refused to turn over my file till I paid that. This all three days before trial. I ended up paying him over $85,000 for basically nothing. My new attorney had to start from scratch. My new attorney was fantastic actually getting the case dismissed when Blackman told me plead guilty or face prison.

The bizarre thing was that I feared nothing was being done so I was offerring to help any way I could and I was assured that all research was being done, etc., to further my case. However, that did not seem to be the case when the case started and went on. After the first day Mr. Blackman asked if I wanted to go to the library to do research. Apparently he needed help. At that point I was too tired and distraught to work overnight. He should have asked earlier, but maybe he thought I would fire him. I may have. The case could have been settled, but Blackman made a big fight of it. He probably knew that if he asked earlier I would have fired him, so constantly assured me that everything that needed to be done was being done. However, obviously it was not. Also, I suppose every time he assured me he intended to "get around to it", but never did. In any case, mid trial I was being asked to figure my own case to help this so called attorney. WOW. That really blew me away. The attorney permitted the constant misstating of the law by the District Attorney and failed to object. It was as if he had not cracked a book to learn anything about the law. What a disaster it was. After the case was over I did crack those books and learned he had completely botched the case. It was simple research that a lawyer experienced, blah blah blah as Mr. Blackman claims to be could easily find in a few minutes, at most an hour, maybe a little more. He never took the time. He just bumbled into court all sure of himself with a factually innocent client. He also failed to make any efforts to prepare or go over testimony. Apparently he does NOT know how to do that, or research a case. He'll expect you to do all the work to get yourself off. During the litigation he was still trying to issue subpoenas and things which should have been done beforehand. He was unable to do so. He was too late. However, he also did not "fall on the sword" and tell the judge he needed a continuance and why (that he had not done his job). Apparently it is more important to Blackman to keep up appearances than to serve the interests of his clients. This lawyer is a disaster. If you want a lawyer who thinks he is better than other people, but too dumb to realize he's not really very smart at all this is your man. And he'll charge you a HUGE amount of money as well, and when you try to go away after he screws up your case and your life he'll sue you for 10s of thousands of dollars or more, all for the incompetent "work" he performs which you'd be better off doing yourself. Do yourself a favor and save the money and go with the public defender. If you don't qualify for the Public Defender then look for ANYBODY else. Probably most troubling is an element of bigotry in Blackman. He thinks he's superior to everybody else and though he was superior to the brand new DA opposing him. However, that brand new DA was able to effectively violate the law right and left with improper instructions, improper statements of what the law is not, and improper questioning and more including sheltering witnesses we needed from subpoenas. Blackman claimed the DA's actions were "unethical" but was unable to do a damn thing about them. If I wasn't paying the price for his incompetence, it would have been quite entertaining watching that brand new DA kick Blackman. There could be a movie about it. It might be pretty good. Worst of all, he still thinks he's better than everybody else even as he loses. He doesn't have a clue. But he's all about the money -- your money -- and he will sue you too even as he ruins your case and life by being so incompetent and lazy.