Reviews

I highly recommend Benimovich Currie & Ajasin LLP. Vivian Currie recently represented me for two summonses I had received and I was very satisfied with the results. He is an excellent lawyer- very professional, knowledgeable, and responsive. I will definitely be using him again.

I recieved an unfair personal violation by an extremely aggressive inspector while acting as the Construction Superintendent of record for a large ground up residential project. Vivian Curry was recommended to me by another very experienced Construction Superintendent who used to work for the DOB. Vivian was fantastic and responsive from start to finish. Vivian not only walked me through the nuances of this process, but also represented me in my OATH hearing. Vivian was tenacious, professional and incredibly knowledgeable and he worked hard to ensure that the violation was dismissed. I am very grateful for the professional assistance provided by Mr. Vivian Curry in this matter and I would strongly recommend his services to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation. Thank you Mr. Curry!

Hi is the best he knows what he’s doing

This Law firm is evidence that God exists and he is good! Thank you Mr. Benimovich for saving my life (literally)!

Professional and Knowledgeable firm. Highly recommend. Peter and Vivian thank you! Our case was dismissed with no penalties.

Vivian and the firm are highly experienced, professional and knowledgeable. It was a pleasure working with them. I highly recommend for your legal matters. They get the job done!

If you've never seen a grown man cry and really want to, call the Department of Buildings on him and watch him suffer. I saw my own father cry when we received a baseless "work without permit" violation and were summoned to appear in OATH court. It was a horrific experience I wouldn't wish on anyone middle or low income, but the experience was made so, so much less stressful by Benimovich Currie & Ajasin LLP and our attorney, Pierre Rivera. I can't give six stars on this rating and I can't give him a hug, but I can at least share my very positive experience with this firm that saved us from paying fines that were unjustly issued in the first place. If you have a pending OATH court date and are a resident of Queens or the Bronx, I should give some context that will enable you to understand exactly why a grown man would be crying: there is only one singular firm that does pro-bono work for the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, and this firm represents both boroughs, all 3.8 million residents (2021 population statistic). With such a stunning lack of availability of free legal representation, making sure that the attorney you hire gets your case resolved is absolutely essential. To this day we aren't aware of why exactly a DOB inspector issued a work without permit violation, as no one in my family has ever done such unpermitted work, and in a way, this made the law firm's job significantly easier considering that we were merely disproving a very, very obvious lie. We can speculate all we want as to why, and there are numerous texts and articles written about the corruption, bribery, perjury, and racism within the department of buildings, but ultimately these speculations don't help one when they have to defend themselves in OATH court. If you, like us, were never involved with the alleged infraction, you should know that it doesn't matter that you didn't do "work without a permit." It doesn't matter if you're legitimately innocent. You still have to go through the entire legal process and prove you never did work without a permit. Yes, even if the fine is for complete and utter nonsense, and easily verifiable by visual observation and publicly available data. Mr. Rivera clearly understood the high stakes of the situation as an experienced attorney, but what made him a pleasure to work with was his emotional intelligence. Understanding the anxiety caused by a situation where we were eligible to pay a $1,250.00 fine for something we never did, Mr. Rivera did his best to do something rare: force the case to not be adjourned to a later date. Statistically, many OATH court cases end up adjourned, which wastes the defendant's time enormously, but this can also be a tremendous financial burden in the case that the trial is adjourned but inspectors come and "re-inspect" the premises, issuing the same fines repeatedly until you are financially devastated. This practice is well documented, with one firm even suing New York City (see: Joseph Corsini v. City of New York) over these abuses. I don't know why "double jeopardy" is legally permissible in OATH court (it's possible that this has to do with the court being considered administrative, and not criminal, in nature), but we absolutely could not risk a re-inspection and subsequent fines for a fabrication. I constantly stressed the importance of not having this case adjourned to BCBC, and Mr. Rivera miraculously enabled us to win our case the very first time we entered the court room, such that we were not dragged through more time-consuming hearings. Mr. Rivera and BCBC will always, always have my utmost respect.

Very responsive and got my violation dismissed.

Petr and Vivian are an excellent team. They worked diligently with me to address DOB summons I received during a project my company was working on. I was very nervous about it but they made sure to walk me through the progress, provide progress reports, and keep me updated on the status. In the end, they got 3 of the 4 summons dismissed with no fees, and 1 significantly reduced. The cost of their services was worth every penny. I hope not to need them again, but if I do, I am relieved to know that they will be able to help me. Thank you so much.

Mr. Benimovich is a very good listener. He was punctual and always took the time to explain things thoroughly so we never felt lost. It’s clear that he is very experienced and knows how to apply it.