Avoid at all costs.
I hired Jamal “J” Tooson in October 2021 and fired him in September 2022. I waited until after my case was resolved with my new, competent attorney to write this review to compare the experiences. I would have been better off with a public defender rather than waste thousands of dollars with Jamal an...d endure extreme hostility and shocking unprofessionalism during the most stressful year of my life.
I contacted Lessem, Newstat, & Tooson because they listed mental health expertise on their website. A mental health crisis resulted in an arrest in June 2021 and I sought out lawyers with experience in this particular matter. I initially spoke to Jeremy Lessem and perhaps I would’ve had a different experience if he ended up being my attorney. It became evident early on that Jamal had no interest in anything other than bragging about himself. Yet he lacked the social and professional capital to garner respect among the court's judges and other attorneys. I had no less than 8 court dates and Jamal failed to show up for all except maybe two or three. I would wait for hours for my case to be called and random attorneys I had never seen or spoken to would dial into the court for one continuation after another. During the one time I saw him in his office, Jamal arrived late and spent most of the time proofreading the motion and answering private phone calls regarding family matters. He had a random attorney I never met write the motion that was submitted and had me pay hundreds of dollars to see a doctor who wrote an ineffective and pointless report that did not help my case. The motion was weak and the DA ultimately used what Jamal submitted against me.
Each interaction with Jamal became increasingly aggressive as he did nothing over the months, to the point where I ended calls in tears due to him literally screaming into the phone. The last straw for me was when he claimed to have a beneficial professional relationship with someone who would be able to help my case (let’s call him Mr. X) and that he’d call Mr. X to discuss. Weeks after stating this and after he declined my call as I walked out of the courthouse since he did not show up, I texted him asking if he had spoken to Mr. X and said that it felt like it would be too late at this point. He called back after reading my text to scream about my “tone” and that he supposedly had been calling Mr. X and could not get a call back. He was so belligerent that the other attorneys who were walking out of the courthouse for their lunch break stopped to stare and waited until he was off the phone to ask me if I was okay.
This behavior is appalling in general but it was disgusting to see it from someone who boasts expertise with mental health matters on his website. At this point, my friend who helped me pay for Jamal’s fees asked what had been done for my case and since I didn’t want to call back screaming Jamal, I asked his paralegal. She immediately forwarded the call to Jamal who once again, started yelling about how the question of what had been done so far was “passive-aggressive” in an unhinged manner.
Several days after Jamal’s abusive conversations, I moved onto my current attorney and I received excellent service since. While Jamal screamed about my “tone”, my current attorney addressed every one of my questions respectfully and also took the time to ask me questions over the course of several in-office appointments to help deepen his knowledge of my case. While Jamal screamed about how he left “countless” calls to Mr. X, that Mr. X must not be calling him back because he simply did not care about the matter, my current attorney got Mr. X on the phone within one day to have an insightful discussion. The new attorneys were present for every court date and ultimately had my case diverted out of criminal court with an excellent motion supported by several mental health experts.
Retaining Jamal Tooson was the single most exacerbating and traumatic part of the crisis.