Reviews

On 12-17-09. I was arrested by the St. Lucie Sheriff's Office, and was charged with 4 Felony charges which were Grand Theft, Official Misconduct, Forgery, and Uttering a forged instrument. I was hired by this Department in on Feb 14th, 1994, at this time I was also a member of the United States Army Reserves. I enlisted on August 23rd, 1984. The Sheriff's Office pays 17 days per year to compensate a employee when they are called up to serve. However I was accused of fraudulently putting in for military pay from the department for military time that were not scheduled military drill weekends. The Sheriff department has a policy that states an employee must submit the proper documents to the supervisor prior to taking military leave, in which I did each time. I was ordered to be at my reserve unit. I am a Food Service Supervisor at my reserve unit, as well as the Transportation Supervisor, and a lot of times I am ordered to be at the unit a couple of days in advance to the regular scheduled drill weekend dates. In which my Military supervisor would always send a Civilian Employer notification in lieu of the scheduled military drill weekends covering all dates that were not visual on the drill schedule. Prior to my arrest the Sheriff's office Internal Affairs Sergeant started their own investigation, prior to them turning their findings over to the State Attorney's Office and ultimately making the decision to arrest me before ever speaking to me or my immediate Military supervisors, but the most devastating action was the fact that for all the dates in question was already at the hands of the investigator in my personnel file. I hired a Criminal Defense Attorney in Brevard County initially that did absolutely nothing in the case for 15 months but continuations. I retained Mr. Garland in March of 2011, once Mr. Garland received my file he and his partner Attorney Mark Orr literally had me in the office 2 days for at least 4 hours each day tearing the case apart. Attorney Garland said to me all the evidence needed to clear you is right here in you're discovery packet that was sent by way of the State Attorney's Office. Mr. Garland and I spent countless hours of research and gathering military rules and regulations, as well as Florida and Federal Statutes and several letters were sent out in support of my criminal case by Mr. Garland, numerous phonecalls to military officials and most importantly Mr. Garland made numerous trips to the Sheriff's Office Human Resource Office and obtained my entire Personnel and Finance records Which also gave him all the necessary information on who he needed to take sworn Depositions from which included Sheriff Office employees and my immediate Military supervisors which ultimately led to the State Attorney doing the right thing and Dismissing the case on September 1st, 2011 twenty-one months later. I commend Mr. Orr and Mr. Garland for a excellent job well done these guys were very aggressive and worked diligently to get this case dismissed within 7 months, had I hired these great attorney's from the beginning im sure the case would have been dismissed at the very beginning Attorney Garland does a very thorough job he is very humble and a well respected attorney he will keep you informed on what's going on with your case every single day there was a letter in my post office box from his firm or a message on my cell phone or better yet a email and his secretary she is just a awesome lady just as professional and greets you with a lovely smile on a rainy day. Mr. Garland I wish you and your firm the best of luck in the near future, and I want to thank you all personally for completing the proper investigation on my behalf, and saving my 21 year Law Enforcement Career as well as my 28 year Military career with 2 years left to retirement. May your Law firm continue to blossom and prosper in St. Lucie county.

I had an issue regarding a criminal client's ability to travel outside Florida and found Mr. Garland had handled a factually similar issue. I contacted him about the case he handled and he not only called me back right away, he also sent me copies of the pleadings he prepared and legal memorandum to support the issues. Mr. Garland's work was thorough, well written, and authoritative. I highly recommend Mr. Garland.

In 2006, I was arrested for possession of child pornography. Unfortunately, I didn't know about Mr. Garland. After going through 2 incompetent attorneys, I ended up taking a plea for 3 counts of possession and was given 15 years probation. My attorney at the time didn’t even ask for concurrent sentencing even thought I had asked him to do so. During the last 5 years, I have had several family events take place outside of Fl. I hired an attorney who was unable to affect any travel for me. Then, last year another family celebration was to take place in California. I hired a new attorney and again was denied travel. On appeal, while working with the attorney, he actually fired me for trying to micro-manage his work. He recommended Mr. Garland. I contacted Mr. Garland and with a lot of research, skill and foresight into what the judge needed, Mr. Garland was able to obtain a travel permit for me. This past July, my family was planning a party celebrating our father’s 90th birthday. Once again, I retained Mr. Garland to seek a travel permit to California. Once again, over the State’s objections, Mr. Garland’s expertise resulted in successfully convincing the judge to grant a travel permit. In my opinion, had Mr. Garland been my attorney in 2006, the results, or at least the length of probation, would have been significantly different.