Attorney Pays $ 200,000 in Legal Malpractice and Gets $ 1.2 Million
Here is the story of a three-way deal in a legal malpractice / overpayment of fees / municipal negligence case which we reported at the onset. In Lodi, California [I must admit that the CCR song quickly comes to mind] target attorney had represented the city in litigation, especially an underground pollution case, and claimed he was owed $ 7 million or more. Here, from Recordnet.com is the story:
"Lodi officials called lawyer Michael C. Donovan incompetent and a fraudster.
Over the course of seven years, they paid Donovan and his firms $16 million to pursue a legal strategy that was later discredited.
After they fired him in 2004 and abandoned his failed legal tactics in a behemoth underground pollution ordeal, officials said they did not owe him a penny more.
Now, after already spending millions more fighting him in court, it will cost the city another $1 million to make Donovan go away for good.
A divided City Council on Wednesday approved settlement agreements that end a back-and-forth legal battle:
The city will drop its 2005 lawsuit against Donovan, in which it claimed he committed fraud and legal malpractice, and receive $200,000 from the attorney's legal insurance.
Donovan, in turn, will get $1.2 million to drop his countersuit"