A Miami attorney having sex with a client dumped her — as a client. He’s suspended.
A Miami attorney has begun a suspension after starting a sexual relationship with a client while handling some of her divorce matters, then not telling her before dumping her — as a client — onto another attorney.
Neither pleased the Florida Supreme Court, which suspended Edmar Amaya for 90 days for ethics violations, according to the Florida Bar discipline report.
The client couldn’t have been thrilled either. The day her marital settlement became final, she also broke up with Amaya.
That’s according to Amaya’s guilty plea for consent judgment, which says the woman came to Amaya to finish her divorce. It had gone on for six months, her previous lawyer had withdrawn from the case and she told Amaya she “had a strong desire to settle the case with her soon-to-be ex-husband.”
She paid Amaya $2,000 only for filing a notice of deposition and sending a request for production. His professional responsibilities didn’t extend beyond that.
“Shortly after Mr. Amaya was retained, the relationship became sexual,” his plea says. Texts, photos and signed affidavits by witnesses “tended to show that the pair was in a loving, committed relationship.”
Faced with a serious client relationship, Amaya used the money paid him as a retainer to retain Miami Lakes’ lawyer Carlos Cabral, a marital dissolution litigation specialist.
Amaya’s client/girlfriend found out about her new attorney when Cabral filed his notice of appearance.
“Although (the client) did not initially authorize Mr. Cabral’s entry of appearance,” the plea says, “she acquiesced to Mr. Cabral’s representation after confronting Mr. Amaya in July 2017 about the way in which he initiated the substitution of counsel.”
While the client and Amaya kept up their relationship, Cabral served discovery and negotiated the marital settlement, which governs how the divorcing parties will behave going forward. The client signed the marital settlement on Sept. 18, 2017.
“The (client) terminated her relationship with Mr. Amaya on the same day her marital settlement agreement became final.”
Amaya admitted he violated Florida Bar rules of diligence, communication (by doing the lawyer swap without telling the client) and the rule that states “a lawyer shall not engage in sexual conduct with a client ... that exploits or adversely affects the interests of the client or the lawyer-client relationship.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 1:54 PM.
