Perlet & Shiner, P.A.

Perlet & Shiner, P.A. is a West Palm Beach criminal defense firm that has been operating since 2000, and the case it makes for itself is narrow on purpose: criminal matters, state and federal, nothing else. That focus shows up immediately in how the site is structured. A lot of law practices try to cover every category going; this one does not.

Criminal defense across state and federal charges

The range of charges the firm handles is wide within that lane. Drug crimes and trafficking, DUI and BUI, violent offenses including assault, battery and homicide, sex crimes, computer crimes, white collar fraud, weapons charges, juvenile matters, probation violations, expungement, and the appeals and post-conviction work that comes after a verdict. Someone arrested rarely knows in advance which of those categories their situation falls into, so a firm covering the full sweep of state and federal criminal exposure has real practical value. The work extends across Palm Beach County and Florida, with both misdemeanor and felony representation on offer.

Trial attorneys with prosecution backgrounds

Four trial attorneys carry the practice: Heidi Perlet, Marc Shiner, Stephen Arbuzow, and Andrew Newman as Of Counsel. All four are former prosecutors. Defense lawyers who once charged cases tend to read the other side of a courtroom with a fluency that is hard to get from study alone, and for a defendant trying to anticipate how the state will move, that background is a concrete advantage. Perlet & Shiner, P.A. describes hundreds of jury trials in state and federal courts. Paired with a former-prosecutor bench and a quarter-century in the same county, that is at least consistent with a practice that goes to trial rather than pleading everything out.

Professional credentials and peer recognition

The credentials behind Perlet & Shiner, P.A. are solid and externally sourced. The firm carries placement on The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 list and an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which is the top peer-review tier in that rating system. Membership in the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Palm Beach County Bar Association rounds out the professional footing. None of those are recognitions a firm can self-award, and taken together they reflect standing among peers and formal reviewers.

24-hour availability for client calls

One operational point worth noting: the phone line runs 24 hours a day. Arrests do not keep office hours, and a firm that answers at two in the morning is solving a problem its clients actually face. For a criminal defense practice, that is a practical promise, not a cosmetic one.

Client reviews across multiple platforms

Found through a business directory search and cross-checked across review platforms, Perlet & Shiner, P.A. shows up well. Birdeye carries 220 reviews at a five-star rating, a substantial volume for a criminal defense practice where satisfied clients often prefer to stay quiet about why they needed a lawyer at all.

Martindale.com and Lawyers.com both list the firm at four stars or above. Further listings on AttorneyAtLaw.com, Lawful.com, and WhoDoYou.com carry positive client quotes, though those platforms do not publish aggregate scores. One honest wrinkle: the Better Business Bureau lists Perlet & Shiner, P.A. under a prior name, Perlet, Shiner, Melchiorre & Walsh, P.A., with no accreditation and no rating shown. That is a stale record from an earlier configuration of the partnership, not a black mark, and it is the sort of thing that turns up when cross-checking a law entry against the wider field.

Contact information and office location

The contact route is straightforward. A phone number, a physical address on Centrepark Drive East in West Palm Beach, and a contact form are all published together. For a firm that wants people to call in a crisis, putting those details front and center is the right call, and a listed address means there is an office a client can actually walk into.

The limitation here is the flip side of the strength: Perlet & Shiner, P.A. handles criminal defense and nothing else, and that is worth knowing before reaching out. Perlet & Shiner, P.A. is not the right firm for a civil dispute, a family matter, or a business contract. Within its chosen ground, though, the depth is substantial. A defined practice area, a fully credentialed bench, prosecution experience on every attorney, two decades of local courtroom presence, and a heavy review count add up to an unusually solid profile for Perlet & Shiner, P.A. Each of those points can be traced to a named attorney, a third-party rating, or a count anyone can pull up, which is more than the typical law entry offers.

What pushes this listing above the average is how much of it can be checked. The attorney roster names specific people. The recognitions come from third parties. The review volume is large enough to mean something. The published address and round-the-clock phone line are where you would want them. That combination of verifiable detail is rare enough that Perlet & Shiner, P.A. stands clear of the entries that ask you to take everything on faith. The evidence across the listing is consistent with a firm that has spent twenty-five years doing this work in Palm Beach County, and that consistency is what the record shows.