Attorney Phone: (239) 332-2500

Mr. Justham, a Fort Myers native and member of the first graduating class of Riverdale High School, received his undergraduate degree in Government and Criminology at Florida State University before attending Stetson University where he received his Juris Doctorate. He then returned to Fort Myers to begin working in the Office of the State Attorney where he was called upon to prosecute everything from traffic to murder cases. Mr. Justham represented the people of the State of Florida on numerous occasions as counsel to the Grand Jury and was assigned special prosecutions outside the 20th Judicial Circuit through designation by the Governor. After almost nine years of service, Mr. Justham was chosen to head the Hendry/Glades county offices as lead prosecutor and supervisor.

Mr. Justham, while supervising the Hendry/Glades offices, was requested by the Mayor of the City of Fort Myers to become City Attorney of Fort Myers with special emphasis on Public Safety. He accepted the position and went on to the city to work closely with the Fort Myers Police Department and its officers. During that period of time Mr. Justham attended a law enforcement certification course and became an Auxiliary Officer with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Hendry County Sheriff’s Office and Fort Myers Police Department. As such, he became knowledgeable and informed about the inner workings of law enforcement agencies. Having become an Auxiliary Law Enforcement Officer, Mr. Justham became a Florida Department of Law Enforcement Certified Instructor and taught officers at the Public Safety Academy.

After having worked as City Attorney of Fort Myers, Mr. Justham joined the Law Firm of Peter D. Ringsmuth where he and Mr. Ringsmuth teamed up to defend those accused of criminal offenses for over 12 years. During that time Mr. Justham represented government officials, law enforcement officers, doctors, attorneys and others accused of criminal offenses in high profile cases throughout the 5 county Circuit. Mr. Justham and Mr. Ringsmuth, through their knowledge and experience in the intricacies of defending DUIs, discovered irregularities and improprieties that resulted in their filing motions that caused the exclusion of all breathalyzer results in Lee County for over two years. Those motions and arguments were subsequently adopted by other attorneys throughout the State with the same results. The arguments made by Mr. Justham eventually resulted in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement acknowledging the problems and amending their own rules to correct the issues and conduct of Law Enforcement Officers.

While at the Ringsmuth Law Firm, following the election of a new State Attorney, Mr. Justham was asked to return to the Office of the State Attorney to become a Division Chief. He accepted that challenge and for the next 15 years supervised the prosecution of everything from homicide to DUIs by scores of attorneys. Mr. Justham created and implemented the County Court Diversion program, expanded the Mental Health Court to include misdemeanor and felony offenses and to allow the inclusion of military veterans in a Veteran’s track, oversaw the expansion of the Drug Court by over 50 percent during the height of the opioid crisis and worked with numerous Law Enforcement Task Forces. Mr. Justham was also called upon to prosecute numerous Homicide cases along with his supervisory responsibilities and was successful in obtaining convictions in every case.

With a combined 24 plus years of working for the State of Florida, Mr. Justham retired from public service and has now returned full circle to work with Mr. Ringsmuth, Mr. Day and Mrs. O’Halloran. Mr. Justham brings with him all of the experience and knowledge obtained while working side by side with law enforcement, the Office of the State Attorney and numerous government officials in Lee County. Mr. Justham looks forward to utilizing his 38 years of experience in the criminal justice system and knowledge he has obtained to assist those who have been accused of criminal offenses as they navigate through the system that he helped develop and refine.