Joseph Shemaria

I had a great job, was making great money and had planned to go to law school. Suddenly my world came crashing down in July, 2013 when federal law enforcement agents arrested me at 6 AM on a Federal Indictment charging me and 10 others with: Conspiracy; Bribery of a Public Official; False Statements ...and "Aggravated Identity Theft". Things went from bad to worse. The magistrate judge ordered me to be detained without bail and I sat in jail for nine months awaiting trial as it was a complex case and new co-conspirators were added as time went by.. I hired Joseph to represent me in place of another private attorney who had been court-appointed. Most all of the 11 codefendants indicted along with me remained detained and most all had court-appointed attorneys. I was getting really mad at Joseph because most all the other attorneys visited their clients almost every week and Joseph was too busy for a lot of "handholding" but he always assured me-- and I always believed him-- when he said he was working on my case and he kept telling me the only way to win the case is to do a lot of legal research, investigate the facts of the case thoroughly and, most importantly, knowing exactly what moves to and when to make them, both with the Assistant United States Attorney and with the Court. I have been told by Joseph, many of my codefendants and other attorneys as well, that I was looking at 5 to 6 years in prison with an additional consecutive two years for aggravated identity theft. I was very depressed and life seemed a bit hopeless at times. But J kept telling me he was working on my case and I cannot begin to tell you how awesomely shocked and surprised I was when he told me I was in a plead guilty to a single count and receive "PROBATION, WITH TIME SERVED as my total sentence!! When I told this to my numerous codefendants in jail, none of them believe me and, to be frank, I couldn't believe it myself. However, I put all of my trust in him and pled guilty to a single count and I RECEIVED PROBATION, WITH TIME SERVED as my total sentence, just as Joseph had told me I would! Largely because of Joseph's hard work, vast experience with federal criminal litigation and "out-of-the-box" creative lawyering, not only was I saved from a long prison sentence, Joseph set the stage for all of my similarly situated codefendants to then be able to receive the same sentences I did. I never thought I would escape going to prison. Nor did I ever think my life would ever return to normal. I must say that thanks to Joseph and his hard-working office staff, I was spared from spending years in prison away from my family. Now, my life has largely returned to normal and I cannot thank Mr. Shemaria enough for what he did for me, my family and all of my codefendants who followed in my footsteps and received the same or very similar sentences. I highly recommend Mr. Shemaria for anybody who sees their life falling apart before their very eyes for violating the federal statute. Mr. Shemaria is a trailblazer and his tactics and strategy and handling my case, as well as his optimism about the outcome of my case, distinguished him from all of my codefendants' attorneys. He was the visionary; he got the results and all the others followed. I can't thank him enough. . . . M.N.C

Mr. Shemaria is a great lawyer. He is honest with us from the beginning of my brothers case. He is very professional and i don't think that we can ask for more. We thank Mr. Shemaria for getting my brother out. Our family was grateful for his help. He is worth every penny, i know he didn't graduate f...rom UCLA for nothing... he is the best lawyer we can ever ask for.

I was arrested last year for shoplifting and because I was intoxicated, I fought with the store security personnel that tried to arrest me outside of the market. The woman security guard claimed I bit her and she still had permanent scars she showed the court at my felony preliminary hearing. Both ...me and my wife have green cards and work five or six days a week. I had a prior conviction before I met Mr. Shemaria. I must say that Mr. Shemaria "stayed the course" fr me. His tenacity and unending legal fight for me and his experience to do the necessary work to expose the background and lack of experience of one if the security guards caused the prosecution to drop the felony charges to a misdemeanor that did not hurt my immigration status! I received only "time served"(one day). Joe would meet us on Saturdays and Sundays at a convenient place between his office and where we lived as both me and my wife worked long hours Monday through Friday and could only meet on the weekends. His fees were very reasonable and he allowed us a payment plan. Were it not for Mr. Shemaria, my children, grandchildren and my wife would all have to had to go on with their lives without me or visit me in my home country, very far away. I recommend Mr. Shemaria very highly as he would go to any extreme lengths in fighting for his client even though the evidence against his client was very strong. Mr. Shemaria convinced us that he was not in law just for money, but it was his "life's work" to do good things for ordinary people like us and to keep families together, keep people from having to pay with their right to remain in this Country for their own sometimes stupid mistakes.