James Roman Amarosa II

My experience with James R. Amarosa II was extremely poor, & I would not recommend him to anyone who needs an attorney willing to communicate clearly, take defense concerns seriously, & follow through on important issues. He repeatedly assured me that being court-appointed would not cause him to t...reat me differently from paying clients. My experience did not reflect that promise. His communication was frequently dismissive & condescending. When I asked for a detailed recap of an important September 4 hearing, his response included statements such as “you were present!” & “why is this case not over yet,” while warning me that remaining on the State’s radar could lead to situations carrying “Florida State Prison time.” He even wrote that if “the US marshals show up at your door in New York to arrest you,” my family should contact him. Yet in the same communication he admitted that neither he nor the court knew what the contemplated additional charges actually were, whether they would be felonies or misdemeanors, or what their status would ultimately be. He also told me categorically that because the judge had ordered physical appearance, “there is no zoom, there is no waiver, there is nothing” except appearing in person. That statement was especially troubling because he had previously pursued remote participation in this same case, contacted chambers, & I subsequently appeared remotely. I did not demand that the judge grant another request. I simply asked him to pursue the lawful avenue again. He never substantively answered that request. Another serious problem involved possible additional charges. During an earlier conversation he specifically questioned me about whether I had written a book & raised “Cyberintimidation by Publication.” Later he wrote that the possible additional charges were unknown. I therefore asked him the obvious question: where did that specific criminal theory come from? The State Attorney? Law enforcement? An investigator? A document? His own inference? He never gave me a substantive answer. I also asked him to help identify or obtain prior court records that I believed could be relevant to the history underlying the present case. Rather than meaningfully addressing those requests, he largely dismissed the broader chronology. Then, immediately after I sent him a detailed written message challenging these contradictions & asking him to perform specific defense-related tasks, my access to the MyCase portal we had been using suddenly became “Forbidden.” I could see that he had responded, yet I could no longer read the response. I emailed him a screenshot, explained that my access had been cut off, & asked him to resend the message. He never substantively explained what happened to the portal access. The timing was deeply concerning. Finally, after I insisted that substantive communication be kept in writing & again asked him to answer the outstanding questions, I was informed that he had withdrawn from the case based on a stated conflict of interest. That left me with lost time, unanswered defense questions, unexplained loss of access to attorney communications, contradictory statements about available procedures, unanswered questions about possible additional charges, & a new lawyer having to take over shortly before an important court date. Based on my experience, if you are fighting to protect your innocence & need an attorney who will listen carefully, communicate respectfully, pursue available defense options, answer difficult questions, & leave a reliable written record, I would look elsewhere. I found James Amarosa dismissive, passive-aggressive, unnecessarily adversarial, & ineffective at giving me confidence that my defense concerns were actually being addressed. He repeatedly told me how highly reviewed he was. My experience gave me no reason to share that assessment.