Pines attorney faces suspension after ignoring grieving mother, officials say
A Pembroke Pines lawyer is being suspended for going AWOL on the mother she was hired to represent in the wrongful death case of her teen son, according to The Florida Bar.
Tamika Jones — of Jones Injury Law, based in north Pines — is being held in contempt of the Supreme Court of Florida and will not be allowed to practice law within the state, the bar association announced in a March 2 statement.
The penalty follows Jones’ months-long unresponsiveness to The Florida Bar’s inquiry into why she abruptly cut contact with her client, Demetre Harvard, less than a year into being her attorney.
Jones was hired to represent Harvard in September 2023, when the lawyer filed a liability complaint against the 1640 Victoria Park Apartments in Fort Lauderdale, demanding over $30,000 in damages for the death of Harvard’s son in the complex’s parking garage two years earlier.
On Sept. 5, 2021, 17-year-old Rashard Harvard was visiting his dad — a resident of the complex — and standing on the “rooftop/upper parking deck area” of the complex’s multi-level garage when he accidentally fell and sustained injuries he later died from, court records show.
“This wasn’t someone slipping downstairs, or a tree branch falling on a vehicle,” Harvard wrote in a November 2024 letter to a Broward judge. “A child, whom I’ve been told wasn’t even supposed to be able to access that area with his key card, died on their grounds.”
Harvard relocated to Arkansas after her son’s death, meaning most of her conversations with Jones were held via email, text messages or phone calls.
The Pembroke Pines lawyer was known to be dodgy, ghosting Harvard twice during court proceedings, the Florida Bar’s complaint against Jones says.
Jones’ first disappearing stint was “due to medical reasons,” Harvard told the court. She also believes the second ghosting incident “had something to do with her medical status,” though the cause is still unknown.
Harvard’s last contact with Jones was on Aug. 13, 2024, 11 months into the case. The lawyer responded to a missed call from the mother via text, writing “Hi, Dee. I’m in a depo and I’ll call you back as soon as it’s over.”
Harvard never heard back and chose to terminate her contract with Jones in an Oct. 28, 2024, letter to the JonesWalters Law Group.
“The service and standards noted in the contract were not maintained by the above noted attorney. Frequent calls, text messages, and emails went unanswered,” Harvard wrote. “Thank you and appreciate all the work that was done up and until that point.”
Harvard filed a complaint with The Florida Bar on Feb. 6, 2025, and the association’s officials followed up less than two weeks later with a letter informing her of the complaint and requesting a written response by March 6, 2025.
Jones never responded and the Feb. 19 letter bounced back to the bar association two months later. A similar letter sent March 18, 2025, and an email sent Sept. 17, 2025, also went unanswered.
She was held in contempt and suspended by the Supreme Court of Florida following the Jan. 23 order.
“Once the suspension takes effect, respondent will remain suspended until she responds to the official Bar inquiry and until further order of the court,” The Florida Bar wrote.
