Ciolek LTD. Attorneys at Law
Twenty years of cases that arrive after something has already gone wrong — and a lawyer who actually answers when you call. Federal court, state court, administrative tribunals. Bankruptcy, criminal, family, real estate, employment, civil rights, IP, federal asset forfeiture, student loans, probate.
A genuinely broad civil and criminal practice. Clients arrive with bankruptcies (personal and business), injuries from accidents someone else caused, criminal charges, student-loan trouble, family matters, estates and probate, real-estate fights, employment disputes, civil rights claims, intellectual property, federal asset forfeiture, administrative hearings — the full list is below. Pick what fits; if nothing does, call anyway.
Consumer & business
Consumer: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 for individuals, joint filers, homeowners, renters, wage earners, self-employed. Business: Chapter 7 liquidation, Chapter 11 reorganization, and Subchapter V small-business reorganization. The signature service of the firm — with a dedicated intake portal for consumer matters.
Federal collection
Federal collection, administrative wage garnishment, Treasury offset, default rehabilitation, consolidation strategy, borrower-defense claims, and the narrow bankruptcy discharge options now available under updated DOJ/ED guidance.
State & federal
State and federal misdemeanor and felony work — drug, theft, assault, OVI, weapons, white-collar. Pre-charge intervention where possible. Plea negotiation and trial preparation where it isn't. Sealings and expungements after.
Both sides
Wrongful termination, non-compete and trade-secret disputes, severance review, unemployment-benefit appeals, ERISA and benefits matters, wage-and-hour claims. Both sides — but more often the employee.
Family law
Domestic relations — divorce, dissolution, custody, support modification. Civil protection orders. Guardianships of minors and incapacitated adults. Juvenile matters. The cases where the law and the personal collide.
After a death
Wills, trusts, advance directives, powers of attorney. Full probate administration in Ohio. Trust administration. Estate disputes between heirs. The kind of matter where the deadline is the statute and the stakes are family.
Property & debt
Landlord–tenant disputes (both sides). Evictions, defense and prosecution. Mortgage foreclosure defense and restructuring. Cognovit-judgment defense. Collections defense and creditor harassment under FCRA / FDCPA. Replevin actions.
Engineer-led
Trademark prosecution, opposition, infringement litigation. Copyright registration and enforcement. Patent matters. Internet domain disputes (UDRP). Entertainment and publishing contracts. Scott trained as a licensed electrical engineer — useful when the disputed thing is technical.
§ 1983 & appeals
§ 1983 actions, defamation, antitrust, contract disputes, professional-conduct defense, notary-liability claims, appeals in state and federal court. The matters that don't fit a single category but need someone who'll see them through.
Federal
Cash, vehicle, and property seizures by Customs, DEA, FBI, IRS. Administrative, civil, and criminal forfeiture under 18 U.S.C. § 981, 21 U.S.C. § 881, and related authorities. The procedural deadlines are short and unforgiving — call early.
State & federal agencies
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) hearings. Municipal administrative appeals. Election law. Public-records litigation. Liquor, gambling, and other licensing matters. Immigration. Education-law disputes. Insurance bad-faith.
Plaintiff's side
Auto, slip-and-fall, premises liability, products, dog bites, wrongful death. When a case needs trial-specialty firepower or belongs with a firm that does PI every day, we bring in co-counsel and stay on the file to represent your interest through the whole process.
Notable · public-interest
Lead counsel on the class-action work that contributed to Ohio H.B. 6 (132nd G.A., effective Jan 18, 2018) — the law restricting commercial mugshot-extortion websites. National coverage in NBC, NPR, NYT, WIRED, and Huffington Post.
Three things clients tend to mention in reviews — and three things the office actually tries to do on every file.
Calls and emails returned by end of business day. If we can't get to it that day, you'll know that day.
The first conversation is usually about whether you even need to file — not whether to hire us. If a cheaper option fixes it, we'll say so.
Most legal problems have more than one defensible answer. The interesting work is finding the one that actually fits the client's life.
When a case needs depth another firm has built, we refer cleanly or bring in co-counsel we've worked with before. No retainer for a case that isn't ours, no ego about sharing work that benefits from a second set of hands.
For consumer bankruptcy specifically, the office uses a custom portal so documents land directly in our archive — no email attachments, no lost threads, one Submission ID per case that you can return to anytime.
Step 01
Open the portal, enter contact details, get one Submission ID for the matter.
Step 02
Pay stubs, taxes, bank statements, IDs. Drag, drop, or photograph. Partial is fine.
Step 03
Each category tracks "have / partial / missing / later" so we know what's coming and what isn't.
Step 04
Same Submission ID, same file. Add records as they arrive — months later if needed.
A genuinely broad civil practice. The high-volume areas are bankruptcy (consumer Chapter 7 and 13, business Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Subchapter V), federal student-loan defense, and criminal defense — state and federal, misdemeanor through felony. From there it widens: family law (divorce, custody, support, civil protection orders, guardianships, juvenile), personal injury, wills and probate and trusts, real estate and landlord–tenant disputes (both sides), construction contract work, employment (wrongful termination, non-compete, ERISA, wage-and-hour), civil rights and § 1983 actions, defamation, intellectual property (trademark, copyright, patent, internet/domain disputes), federal asset forfeiture, immigration, election law, public-records litigation, PUCO and other administrative hearings, liquor and gambling licensing, insurance disputes, education law, collections defense, FCRA and FDCPA work, foreclosure defense, repossession, wage garnishment, and more. Twenty years of files behind that list. If a matter needs depth another firm has built — out-of-state litigation, niche federal regulatory work, an area where a specific firm's track record makes the difference — we'll either refer cleanly or bring in co-counsel we've worked with before. What serves the case comes first.
901 Washington Street, Toledo, Ohio 43604. Bankruptcy and probate work focuses on Northwest Ohio. Federal work (forfeiture, IP, student loans) reaches into Michigan and across the 6th Circuit.
Yes — a free 10-minute call to figure out whether you need a lawyer at all, what the matter actually involves, and whether this office is the right fit. No obligation, no sales pitch.
It depends on the matter type. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the exception — the full attorney fee must be paid before the petition is filed. That's a function of how Chapter 7 works (any unpaid pre-filing fee gets discharged with the rest of your debt), and it's the same constraint every Chapter 7 lawyer operates under. Some clients save toward it over a few months, then file; we'll talk through the timeline before you commit. For everything else — Chapter 13 (where the fee is built into the plan), Chapter 11 / Subchapter V, probate, IP, criminal, family, employment, civil litigation, federal forfeiture — payment plans can usually be structured. Discussed up front, in writing, before any work begins.
Cash, debit cards, money orders, certified checks, personal checks, and — for non-bankruptcy matters — credit cards via LawPay.
ciolek.legal is the office's current site. It hosts the secure intake portals (personal bankruptcy, business bankruptcy, general matter), the practice-area overview, the FAQ, and the contact information. This is where new clients should start. counselor.pro is the firm's prior website — still online, still ours, and kept up because some long-form practice-area content (federal asset forfeiture, intellectual property, probate background) lives there and is well-indexed in search. Over time more of that material will migrate here. If you landed on counselor.pro through a search and need to send documents or schedule a call, come over to ciolek.legal — that's where the live intake lives.
A few things people have written about working with the office. Most arrived after something had already gone wrong; the reviews are about how it went from there.
Scott walked down a very confusing and scary path with me and changed the experience from one of the most negative in my life to one that was tolerable and over quickly. He knows more about how to use the law to his client's benefit than any other attorney I have ever met. His confidence was contagious and his humor took the edge off some very tense moments for me.
Outstanding service. Mr. Ciolek took control of the situation and turned it around. He explained things along the way and totally put my mind at ease. He even drove from Toledo to Akron to appear before the judge and walked away with a perfect outcome. Highly recommended.
Scott is an amazing attorney. I was in a difficult situation and he quickly put me at ease. He offered great direction and handled my case in the most professional manner. I would highly recommend Scott — he will certainly exceed your expectations and bring you peace of mind in your legal matters.
That's what the free 10-minute call is for. Walk through the situation with someone who'll tell you whether the office can help — and if it can't, where to look instead.
