About

Mission Statement

The Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara offers fair, aggressive and quality representation on our clients’ behalf. This Firm pays particular attention to keeping our clients well-informed to reduce their level of anxiety. This Firm is a service oriented law firm with two very dedicated professionals who together have over 20 years of legal experience in the Courtroom.

The Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara primarily handles criminal defense, family law, personal injury, land use, education law and student advocacy matters. This limited practice enables each attorney to focus on his/her clients’ needs. This limited practice permits the attorneys to keep abreast with the latest developments in the law to benefit our clients.

The Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara’s goal is to seek practical and cost effective alternatives to litigation through negotiation, mediation and arbitration which will be a cost savings to the client. When mediation or arbitration is not possible, or is unsuccessful, the Firm aggressively litigates cases to their conclusion.

When you need professional and caring counsel that you can count on there is only one experienced team of attorneys that you can trust, The Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara. We understand what you are going through and your needs come first at this law firm. We fight hard for you with compassion!

Our Standards

We handle our clients’ legal matters competently and diligently, in accordance with the highest standards of the profession.
We are dedicated and committed to our clients.
We treat our clients with respect and courtesy.
We exercise independent professional judgment on your behalf to offer you the most objective and rational way to resolve your case.
This Firm believes in charging a reasonable fee and we explain in advance how that fee will be computed and billed.
We return your telephone calls promptly. If the attorney is unable to personally return your call, someone from our office (i.e., paralegal or secretary) will return your call that same day or the next day at the latest.
We will keep you informed about the progress of your case and provide you with copies of important papers and documents that are sent out on your behalf.
We respect your decisions on the objectives to be pursued in your case. As permitted by law and the Rules of Professional Conduct we will settle your case.
We preserve our clients’ confidences and secrets learned during our attorney-client relationship. We are not judgmental, we are here to serve you.
We work with other participating professionals in the legal system with your written approval to increase the chances of success in your case.
We exhibit the highest degree of ethical conduct in accordance with the Rules of Professional Conduct in a State Bar Act.

Our Fees

How to hold down your legal fees at the Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara and most other law firms...

If you are being charged hourly by your attorney call as sparingly as possible and keep the conversation brief and to the point. Limit the chit chat and get to the point. You may be getting charged for every minute!
Ask if you are being charged for very short telephone calls lasting less than 5 minutes. Ask your attorney if he or she prefers that you set up specified times for telephone questions and answers and whether it would be more time efficient to bundle your questions together instead of making separate telephone calls and leaving messages.
Find out if your attorney would prefer that you email questions, and whether he or she will charge for this time or if it's part of the flat fee (or other non charged benefits) of representation?
When you visit with your attorney BE PREPARED and ORGANIZED with all of your documents and an outline of what you want to accomplish by a certain date. A timeline will keep you disciplined and focused.
Volunteer to do some leg work like picking up documents at the court house or the mortgage company. If you have the time then save some money by spending YOUR time rather than the Attorney or Paralegal's time, especially if it is billed at a higher rate than your own hourly wage.
Watch out for “add ons” and fees. Attorneys can act like banks! Find out if your attorney charges for an "open file fee." Say no! Find out and inquire about fees and "add ons." Review your monthly invoices, and if you do not receive monthly invoices, demand that you do so that you can regularly keep track of all costs, expenses and attorney fees

Quality Legal Representation

You should be concerned about the cost of quality legal representation, especially in this bad economy. However, how much is your freedom worth? Who will be watching your family if you have to spend time in jail? How much is it worth to have no criminal felony record so that you can find a good job in today’s market? Therefore, “price shopping” for a criminal defense attorney is as foolish and as dangerous as “price shopping” for a medical doctor. Remember, nobody ever regretted having a good lawyer when they were faced with criminal charges and significant jail time hanging over their heads!

How much will the Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara charge to represent you and/or a loved one?

These are the factors that I consider to arrive at a fair price for my legal services:

The nature of the criminal charges that are filed against you and/or your loved ones;
The difficulty and complexity of your case. Is this a strike or a gang enhancement case? Is it a multiple count case with multiple defendants?
The specific facts of the case, which could make your case a matter of first impression without precedence;
The defenses (if any) or motions to be filed, affirmative defenses that need to be raised together with experts that I plan to hire;
Any prior criminal history or record from the defendant needs to be taken into consideration to determine the complexity of the case(s), and the District Attorney’s attitude toward the particular defendant;
The maximum jail and/or prison exposure faced by the defendant affects the amount of time and the cost that the attorney puts into a case;
The client’s financial ability to pay for legal services is considered when devising a payment plan; and
All contracts are in writing and signed.

Flat Fees

Like many criminal defense attorneys, I employ a flat fixed fee for criminal cases. This type of arrangement allows the accused (the defendant) to know exactly what my attorney fees will be without any additional surprises and invoices. In some cases, the flat fee excludes the investigator’s fees and the fees for experts. In some cases, expert fees are billed separately from the attorney fees. If this is the case, the client is required to make a deposit for these additional services into the attorney-client trust account and at the end of the case any unused portion of the retainer will be promptly refunded. At the end of each month, an invoice/bill will be produced for the client to review which keeps track of the expert fees and other costs.

The flat fee is preferable to the “hourly billing rate/fees” since there will not be any surprises at the end of the representation. All agreements are written in clear English and not legalese which will spell out the attorney’s duties and responsibilities. For Spanish speaking clients, all documents are translated into Spanish and explained in Spanish verbally with the attorney present. All agreements contain a Mediation Clause so that in the event there is a dispute between attorney and client, it can be addressed quickly and economically.

The handling of complex felony and multiple defense cases

In more complex cases such as certain felonies, I charge a fixed flat fee at each stage of the proceedings (i.e., up to and including the preliminary hearing). My goal as stated above is for the client to know in advance exactly what they will be charged in each case at each stage. The goal is for me to arrive at a very fair but yet adequate flat fee to handle each client’s case with the full attention and the necessary resources that the case and client deserve!

Please feel free to call me to arrange a free confidential consultation and evaluation of your case.

If you choose our law firm to represent you, not only will you be treated with respect and dignity, but an aggressive and thorough defense will be mounted on your behalf! We accept Visa and Mastercard. Your personal or business checks are welcome, but a cashier’s check is preferable if we do not already have a preexisting business relationship with you. We will work out a flexible payment plan, but will expect a substantial portion of the fees to be paid before we begin representation!

Michael A. Fiumara

Michael A. Fiumara Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Fiumara graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A., Phi Beta Kappa. He received a Master's Degree in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Later, he earned his Law Degree from the Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, 1989.

Mr. Fiumara has been practicing primarily in the areas of criminal defense, personal injury, land use and zoning law for the past fourteen years in Sonoma County.

Hence, Mr. Fiumara is very familiar with the local Sonoma County Judges, court procedures and the way to get things done on your behalf.

CRIMINAL DEFENSE

Mr. Fiumara takes a great deal of pride in working together with the local courts, the prosecution, probation and program providers to tailor alternatives to jail and/or prison. Please also see our other website: www.avoidjailnow.com.

For those defendants the prosecution can prove guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Mr. Fiumara's keen negotiation skills and his assertive demeanor have been instrumental in obtaining favorable sentences. When trial is necessary, Mr. Fiumara has been known to team up with the best litigators to make sure that you have all of the resources that you need to win your case and get an acquittal. Strategy and winning pre-trial motions from the very beginning is the first line of defense. In the very least, Mr. Fiumara has a good track record of reducing an accused person's fines and reducing charges from felonies to misdemeanors. Mr. Fiumara has also worked to set aside and expunge felonies and misdemeanors so that defendants can get a new start on life.

The types of criminal defense cases Mr. Fiumara has had experience working on include, but is not limited to:

All serious felonies
All misdemeanor cases
All juvenile law matters
Domestic violence
Drug possession/sale
Marijuana possession
Assault/battery
Theft/embezzlement
All DUI cases
Repeat offenders
Driving with a suspended license
DMV hearings
Probation violation hearings
Fraud/forgery
Sex crimes/lewd conduct
Indecent exposure and sex related cases
Shoplifting/theft
Trespassing
Fishing & game violations

PERSONAL INJURY

Mr. Fiumara has been practicing personal injury law as long as he has practiced criminal defense. However, prior to moving to Sonoma County, Mr. Fiumara had the distinction of working with a well respected San Francisco boutique insurance defense law firm in the financial district. There he gained very valuable insight on how the insurance industry values and defends claims. With this experience, Mr. Fiumara has been very effective at settling personal injury claims often without the need to litigate, thus saving the aggrieved and injured plaintiff time and expense. But, when litigation is required to obtain a fair monetary award, Mr. Fiumara and his team of investigators and litigators go all out and pull no stops.

The types of personal injury cases that Mr. Fiumara and his team of litigators have a great deal of experience working on include, but is not limited to, the following:

All automobile accidents and collisions
Motorcycle accidents
Bicycle accidents
Passenger rights
Bus/train/public transit accidents
Pedestrian injuries
Animal inflicted injuries/dog bites
Slip, trip, and fall injuries
Work related injuries
Wrongful death
Industrial accidents
Explosion/burn injuries
Electrocution
Farm and ranch accidents
All other accidents involving injury or loss of life, including fatal automobile accidents

LAND USE

Mr. Fiumara has the unique distinction in this County of not only possessing a Law Degree, but he has earned a separate Master's Degree in City Planning from one of the best Ivy League Schools in the Country, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Before practicing law, his second career, Mr. Fiumara had more than 15 years of land use, zoning and government work experience. He worked for the infamous New York City Mayor Edward Koch in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). If you can work for Mayor Koch and survive in New York City at the same time, you can thrive anywhere else! Later, the City of Newark, New Jersey hired Mr. Fiumara as their Senior Comprehensive Planner for the City. He stayed in that position until he began law school at Rutgers University in New Jersey because he wanted to be further challenged. Mr. Fiumara also gained insightful and valuable land use experience when he served as a tremendously active planning board member in the rapidly growing Philadelphia suburb of Voorhees, New Jersey. There he worked with planners, developers, politicians and individual property owners to develop and implement a master plan and site design review plan. In Philadelphia, while a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Fiumara worked in the City's Gift Property Program where he worked with a wide variety of community groups and nonprofit organizations to help improve the City's housing stock. This valuable land use experience and organizational skill development has sharpened Mr. Fiumara's ability to successfully resolve many of the complex land use conflicts that he is hired to resolve in Santa Rosa and in Sonoma County.The types of land use & zoning cases Mr. Fiumara has had experience working on include, but are not limited to:

Violation of Sonoma County or Santa Rosa building and/or zoning codes
Illegal dwelling unit issues/red tag concerns
Construction without permits/unlawful construction
Illegal septic systems
Structures converted to a second unit illegally (illegal conversions)
Nuisance abatement
Use permits/modifications/variances
Business licenses
Alcohol Beverage Commission (ABC) hearings (all administrative hearings)
Legalize unlawful construction
Eminent domain
Water & sewer connections/ City utilities

EDUCATION LAW AND STUDENT ADVOCACY

Mr. Fiumara has had the unique experience of having been employed by the Santa Rosa City School District as an outreach leader and liaison for the students, particularly Latino and minority students. This experience enables Mr. Fiumara to understand how School Districts respond to student discipline and other safety concerns on campus. Hence, Mr. Fiumara has represented numerous students against an overzealous "zero tolerance" School District for infractions relating to the Education Code. Mr. Fiumara has represented dozens of students in disciplinary hearings before administrative panels and school boards. These students have been denied their due process rights by inflexible disciplinary codes that use catch all categories like "insubordination and disrespect" to mandate suspension or expulsion. These codes have no regard for the circumstances or nature of the offense, nor the student's history. Mr. Fiumara's strong advocacy on behalf of his clients has been covered by the PacificSun and The San Francisco Daily Journal. Copies of these articles will be furnished upon request.

Mr. Fiumara has challenged expulsion proceedings which violate students' rights due to violation of their due process rights, and has worked with other counsel around the State to expunge school board policies (see the San Francisco Daily Journal, Wednesday, November 20, 2002, front page story "Class Actions -Do Expulsion Proceedings Violate Students' Due Process Rights? Lawyers Defending Several Young Men Argue That They Do").

Mr. Fiumara has appeared before many local and Bay Area School Boards representing students in expulsion hearings. He has been successful at working out arrangements to avoid the harsh effects of expulsion. Instead of expulsion, Mr. Fiumara has negotiated reasonable suspension/expulsion terms and conditions which allow the students back into the classroom while at the same time protecting the student's school record. Often times the student's cumulative school file and school records are incorrect or include information that could be potentially harmful. Mr. Fiumara has successfully used the Education Code to remove erroneous records, comments and other harmful information from the student's cumulative and other school files.

ORGANIZATIONS/AFFILIATIONS

Since moving to Santa Rosa in 1992, Mr. Fiumara has been socially and politically active in many of Sonoma County's civic and nonprofit organizations. In addition, Mr. Fiumara stays politically active and has worked on numerous political judicial races and campaigns. Here are some of Mr. Fiumara's involvements that help define his interest in the Community:

Member, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Member, California Public Defender's Association
Member, Criminal Defense Section of the Sonoma County Bar
Board Member, Friends Outside, an organization that helps inmates and their families
Advisory Board Member, The Friends of the Sonoma County Library
Member and Volunteer for the Sonoma County Council on Aging and a Panelist on their Lawyer Referral Service
Member, Sonoma County Lawyer Referral Service, Recipient of Certificate of Appreciation
Past Vice President and Member of the Consumer Attorneys of Sonoma County
Advisory Board Member, Fountaingrove Lodge
Advisor and Board Member of GLSEN
Former Board Member, Sonoma County Ombudsman Program (now referred to as the Senior Advocacy Services)
Former Member, Santa Rosa Downtown Business Association
Member, former Co-Chair of the Scholarship Committee of the Sonoma County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Advisory Board and Member of Sonoma County Adult Literacy
Past President, current Board Member of the Santa Rosa Democratic Club
Former Volunteer and Employee at the Santa Rosa Junior High School, hired as Liaison and Outreach Leader in the Latino Community, and employed by Santa Rosa City Board of Education

Mary Dang

As a respected deputy district attorney, public defender and now private defense attorney, Mary Dang has extensive courtroom experience and knowledge of the courts and district attorneys throughout the Bay Area. Ms. Dang defends her clients aggressively at jury trials to ensure that judges and prosecutors treat her clients fairly. Ms. Dang has handled thousands of criminal cases both defending and prosecuting individuals.

Here's a list of some of Ms. Dang's practice:

Domestic Violence
Drug Offenses
Expungements
Juvenile Law
Marijuana Possession
Theft Crimes
Violent Crimes
DUI
Warrants

Jackie Martens

Jackie Martens Jackie L. Martens has been serving clients in Sonoma and Marin Counties in private practice since 1995, and has worked exclusively in the legal field for over 23 years. She graduated from Empire College School of Law in 1995, and was admitted to the Bar that year. During her final year of law school, she clerked for a family law judge in Sonoma County. Ms. Martens is a member of the Family Law Sections of the Sonoma and Marin County Bar Associations.

She serves as a Judge Pro Tem in small claims matters and volunteers for Legal Aid to help low-income individuals. She appeared on the Len Tilleman radio show on KGO in April 2006 to discuss the recent changes in the law effecting registered domestic partners, custody matters, and other family law issues.

Ms. Martens has helped hundreds of clients through emotionally difficult divorces, high-conflict custody matters, spousal and child support issues, and property disputes. She also assists unmarried couples, both same-sex and heterosexual couples, to establish custody and visitation rights, and to enforce agreements between couples to pool income, share assets, and provide support.

Ms. Martens’ philosophy is to assist her clients efficiently and effectively through complex family law issues so they can ultimately move on with their lives as smoothly as possible. Sensitive to the stress and difficulties clients experience in litigation, she seeks to resolve cases efficiently and economically through negotiation and mediation, but aggressively litigates cases, including through trial, when necessary.

In addition to family law, Ms. Martens assists clients in estate planning matters, including preparing Living Trusts, Wills, and Durable Powers of Attorney for her clients at a reasonable cost, as well as handling probate matters, and establishing conservatorships and guardianships. She also represents clients in construction matters, real estate and contract disputes, and other partnership and business disputes. Ms. Martens has handled over 80 construction defect cases, and numerous other real property cases involving failure to disclose defects upon sale, easement issues, and title disputes.