fairytalesrcute
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- California
I really hope that someone can help guide me in the right direction on this because I feel like my current attorney and insurance broker have failed me. I need guidance on if I should keep my current counsel or fire them and sue them and the insurance broker. I also need help navigating this whole thing because I am not a legal expert but I feel things have not been handled correctly by the attorney, even on a strategy level.
I own a business 50-50 with a partner that started up a competing company and solicited and moved the clients he was directly servicing over to his new entity back in 2018. During the solicitation none of them contacted me, and he made incorrect slanderous statements about me and why he needed to part ways. The reality was he asked to separate months prior but didn't like the terms that I had the attorney draft up, which I think was fair. Instead of negotiating he concocted a plan to steal the clients and leave when I was 38 weeks pregnant. That triggered liquidated damages clauses in my contract with the clients, which I paid as I believe the contract permitted me to do - they disagree. They hired him on or before July 24, 2018, the letter was later digitally edited to reflect a date of July 31, 2018 according to the metadata of the letters. He tendered his resignation and the client termination letters on August 1,2018. August I filed insurance claims against the Clients policies for both the CGL and D&O - all denied. They afterwards filed against their fidelity bond - denied. I don't believe the clients read the contract before hiring him otherwise they would have known or would have reasonably known what would be triggered. He told them that he had an attorney guiding him every step of the way and they trusted that advice instead of getting their own opinion.
My partner sued me and we are still in litigation. From the onset I told the attorney that we needed to obtain any type of insurance coverage to cover the defense. We tried the E&O - denied (mishandling of money exclusion), fidelity bond - denied (officer/shareholder exclusion). My insurance broker told me that we didn't need D&O because I had E&O. Attorney & broker told me the general liability policy probably wouldnt cover anything so we didnt submit a claim on that. I started paying him out of the liquidated damages funds I had collected. After that ran dry he kept insisting on payment and thats when I dug through the CGL policy and found the advertising injury section - his comment to me was "oh i thought we already submitted a claim for this". So while the money was coming in for him he didnt bother making sure I had insurance covering the defense. After a while the CGL policy accepted defense but nothing retroactive - meanwhile before CGL gave a response and to avoid attny stopping services I had to sell a property for less than what it was worth at the time to hurry up and get funds to pay them. Currently CGL is still paying for the primary lawsuit where I am a defendant against my partner but meanwhile I have had to fight off lawsuits with a few clients and 3 new ones after he left the state and I believe sold the contracts to another management company.
Once again I am behind now paying the attorney because I cant get any coverage from anywhere it seems like and I used all of the funds I had to pay the attorney the first time before the coverage would kick in. When I hired the attorney he told me 'you have a golden case' after I shared the level of proof and documentation I have. I don't feel like that at all. I've already paid over $200k to the attorney, fought off the DRE complaint the partner made against my license, still fighting the ethics complaint partner made to IREM - that's pending resolution of the lawsuit, I got that much even though they provided them some of my discovery documents early as part of their complaint process. I feel like the details are not being paid attention to and like I am constantly having to do my own research. I feel like I am drowning and there is no end in sight and I don't know enough about the legal field to determine if he's abused his billed time or done things that weren't needed, etc. Oh and I cant really vent about this on my personal pages either because a personal friend of mine is representing the clients suing me. There's a lot going on but am I am not an expert in the law and I need help I think guiding my current situation - even if the right answer is continue with the existing counsel that helps because I am so confused.
I own a business 50-50 with a partner that started up a competing company and solicited and moved the clients he was directly servicing over to his new entity back in 2018. During the solicitation none of them contacted me, and he made incorrect slanderous statements about me and why he needed to part ways. The reality was he asked to separate months prior but didn't like the terms that I had the attorney draft up, which I think was fair. Instead of negotiating he concocted a plan to steal the clients and leave when I was 38 weeks pregnant. That triggered liquidated damages clauses in my contract with the clients, which I paid as I believe the contract permitted me to do - they disagree. They hired him on or before July 24, 2018, the letter was later digitally edited to reflect a date of July 31, 2018 according to the metadata of the letters. He tendered his resignation and the client termination letters on August 1,2018. August I filed insurance claims against the Clients policies for both the CGL and D&O - all denied. They afterwards filed against their fidelity bond - denied. I don't believe the clients read the contract before hiring him otherwise they would have known or would have reasonably known what would be triggered. He told them that he had an attorney guiding him every step of the way and they trusted that advice instead of getting their own opinion.
My partner sued me and we are still in litigation. From the onset I told the attorney that we needed to obtain any type of insurance coverage to cover the defense. We tried the E&O - denied (mishandling of money exclusion), fidelity bond - denied (officer/shareholder exclusion). My insurance broker told me that we didn't need D&O because I had E&O. Attorney & broker told me the general liability policy probably wouldnt cover anything so we didnt submit a claim on that. I started paying him out of the liquidated damages funds I had collected. After that ran dry he kept insisting on payment and thats when I dug through the CGL policy and found the advertising injury section - his comment to me was "oh i thought we already submitted a claim for this". So while the money was coming in for him he didnt bother making sure I had insurance covering the defense. After a while the CGL policy accepted defense but nothing retroactive - meanwhile before CGL gave a response and to avoid attny stopping services I had to sell a property for less than what it was worth at the time to hurry up and get funds to pay them. Currently CGL is still paying for the primary lawsuit where I am a defendant against my partner but meanwhile I have had to fight off lawsuits with a few clients and 3 new ones after he left the state and I believe sold the contracts to another management company.
Once again I am behind now paying the attorney because I cant get any coverage from anywhere it seems like and I used all of the funds I had to pay the attorney the first time before the coverage would kick in. When I hired the attorney he told me 'you have a golden case' after I shared the level of proof and documentation I have. I don't feel like that at all. I've already paid over $200k to the attorney, fought off the DRE complaint the partner made against my license, still fighting the ethics complaint partner made to IREM - that's pending resolution of the lawsuit, I got that much even though they provided them some of my discovery documents early as part of their complaint process. I feel like the details are not being paid attention to and like I am constantly having to do my own research. I feel like I am drowning and there is no end in sight and I don't know enough about the legal field to determine if he's abused his billed time or done things that weren't needed, etc. Oh and I cant really vent about this on my personal pages either because a personal friend of mine is representing the clients suing me. There's a lot going on but am I am not an expert in the law and I need help I think guiding my current situation - even if the right answer is continue with the existing counsel that helps because I am so confused.
