James D. Murtha

James was retained over the phone. My wife and I thought he sounded legit. Off the bat he did everything he was supposed to do. After 2 months a court date should have been given (even sooner really). James assured me everything was going as it was supposed to. Meanwhile my real estate agent was tell...ing me you should have a court date if he filed. James assured me he filed. I asked over and over why do we not have a court date. Everything is fine he would assure us. I sent the paperwork in he said over and over. If you did, why do we not have a court date. James said it takes time. Well after numerous texts and phone calls I decided to go to the courthouse myself. Thank goodness I did that because they did not get the paperwork which he assured me they did. I was livid called him and left nasty messages because he had wasted 2 months of time that could have pushed out a tenant that was squatting. He finally calls me back and says he will personally go to the courthouse and make sure everything is as it should be. Finally, he did something he did go to the court the next day. He then sent an email letting me know there will be a court day soon and he will let me know as soon as that date is in the books. That was a blatant lie, the court date was immediate as soon as he filed the court date was there. I know this because we checked the website of the court. He took 2 weeks to let us know when the court date was even though the date was already given from the moment he went to the court and filed. He threatened me about going to the courthouse myself that he would no longer be my lawyer if I went back or even called them. He claimed that I misbehaved at the courthouse, which was an absurd lie . The ladies all said he was wrong and if he had filed the court date would have been given immediately. I am sure James has done some cases correctly, but I would never trust this man again. He should have offered us money back but instead insisted he was in the right the whole way. It was disgusting. I was selling the house too much trouble renting towards the end. We waited 3 months before we started actively trying to sell the house because he has on his website takes 3 months to get them out. Fortunately, we got a buyer immediately. When explaining this to James he said, "it was a bad idea to schedule the sale of the house until the eviction is completed and the tenants are removed." If he had done his job, we would have had the tenant out with plenty of time before closing. He knew that if the papers were filed at the court, you immediately get a date. He just kept telling me everything is as it should be, and I bought that for 2 months. To this day I do not understand why he was blatantly lying to me about a court date. If he did not know that when you file you immediately get a court date, he is one lawsy lawyer. If you could see the emails and how he tried to turn this on me and that I was an impatient person, oh he was so unprofessional. The last thing that he did that was incredibly unprofessional was he said to go to court early to find him on the court date. He did not show up. He sent another lawyer in his stead. She was nice and professional, but we had no idea he was not going so we spent the morning looking for him . He did not call to tell us he was not going he did not pick up his phone when we called him! She said we did not even have to be there in complete contradiction of what James told us. I would say use this untrustworthy lawyer James Murphy at your peril.

This man needs his license taken away. He robs people of their money for evictions and never files with the court. HE NEEDS TO BE ARRESTED. His addresses are UPS STORES!!!! I called to make an appointment with him and told him I wanted to meet at his office and he told me "it's the 21 century, I don'...t do business this way; I'm probably not the lawyer for you" SCAM ARTIST ALL THE WAY!!!! HE HAS BEEN REPORTED TO THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY

I called Mr Murtha after hours tonight and he graciously answered his phone. I told him of some threats my landlord made regarding my departure from my apartment and not getting my deposit returned. Mr Murtha clearly explained my rights and put me at ease, knowing i would not need his services but a...t the same time still treating me like a long standing client. Not all Landlord Tenant lawyers fight for the tenant, James Murtha does. I strongly recommend is services to anyone on Long Island that needs help.

Do not be tempted to hire Mr. Murtha for your legal needs. I found him to be extremely careless, often taking shortcuts which were convenient for him to resolve my matter while disadvantageous for me, the client. Although I tolerated this treatment, often being dismissed by him, I was still not able ...to achieve my objective. As I started to express my disappointment, with how my case was being handled, he became increasingly angry with me, resulting in our eventual breakdown in communications. This left me feeling hopeless and wondering who my next lawyer needed to be. Save your time and money and look elsewhere for your legal needs.