Troutman Amin, LLP is seeking massive sanction following case it calls both "objectively frivolous" and brought in "bad faith."
Irvine, California
New Jersey based law firm Cooper Levenson has been served with a motion seeking massive sanctions in connection with its filing of a “frivolous” legal malpractice suit.
Troutman Amin, LLP is seeking over $100,000.00 in sanctions against Cooper Levenson following the filing of the suit it claims is both “objectively frivolous” and was brought in “bad faith.”
The lawsuit contends Troutman Amin, LLP billed over $200k to defend a suit that could have been settled for $80k. But the truth is quite different according to the sanctions motion.
“The $80k demand referenced in the complaint was rejected by different counsel over a year before Troutman Amin, LLP was even involved. We had nothing to do with turning down that offer.” Troutman says. “Cooper Levenson knew that but still filed a deceptive lawsuit suggesting otherwise in an effort to trick people and the court. Just absurd behavior and highly sanctionable.”
The sanctions motion explains that by the time Troutman Amin, LLP was involved with the case the client was facing hundreds of millions of dollars in exposure in a putative class action– and subject to a class discovery order requiring the production of millions of records.
Cooper Levenson Partner Rona Kaplan filed the complaint
“By the time we got involved the $80 demand was long off the table and class counsel wanted only a multi-million dollar classwide settlement the client could never afford.” Troutman says. “We had our work cut out for us if we were going to save this small business–but we turned the case around and delivered a tremendous result in an incredibly short amount of time.”
Despite a “firestorm of discovery disputes” in the complex litigation that followed, Troutman Amin, LLP lawyers were able to bring the case back on track.
Troutman Amin, LLP lawyers deftly handled the court-ordered discovery, hand-holding the client through the difficult data identification, extraction and review phase. Troutman Amin LLP lawyers helped the client identify proper custodians, data sets, data repositories and identified third-parties that were in possession of key records. It set a phased production schedule and assisted keeping opposing counsel and the court satisfied with progress.
At the same time Troutman Amin, LLP lawyers worked to turn the case around. It served affirmative discovery on the Plaintiff and began framing out a strategy for defense that included defeating certification and creating a blueprint for leverage to drive an individual settlement with payments over time the client could afford.
It worked.
Within 60 days of Troutman Amin, LLP entering the defense it brought the opposing side back to the table and obtained an individual settlement demand that was actually lower than the original pre-suit $80k demand.
This was a tremendous result that was possible only through Troutman’s personal involvement in the suit and could not have been accomplished by any other law firm according to the sanctions motion.
Even though Troutman Amin, LLP had successfully saved the business when the bill came due the former client refused to pay–even after Troutman agreed to take payment over time. That’s when the scheme to file the bad faith lawsuit came into play.
“These guys were facing enough exposure to bankrupt them 100 times over. They begged us to take the case to save them. We come into the case and work our tails off for them and literally save their business. We even agreed to represent them at a reduced fee and accept payment over time to help save a small business. ” Troutman says. “But then they stiff us on the bill and hire Cooper Levenson to file a frivolous lawsuit when we try to collect in the hopes we would just ‘walk away’ from the invoice. This is truly worst of the worst type stuff. And obviously it was never going to work.”
The complaint contains other misleading allegations as well according to the sanctions motion. For instance the Complaint falsely claims Troutman Amin, LLP continued working on the case for months after being instructed to stop work– but the true facts are the former client instructed Troutman Amin, LLP to resume work again within just 24 hours of the stop request.
“The part about us ignoring a stop work request really irks me.” Troutman says. “Cooper Levenson knew the client had instructed us to get back to work after only about a 24 hour pause. But they make it seem like we were some kind of out-of-control freight train that refused a client instruction and kept working the case for weeks after being told to stop. This is highly defamatory and obviously totally false.”
Under applicable rules Cooper Levenson has up to 28 days to withdraw the complaint to avoid the sanctions motion but Troutman says the sanctions motion is only the beginning.
“I’ve told Cooper Levenson to put their carrier on notice and made a policy-limits demand here.” Troutman says. “There’s no way a law firm should be allowed to operate this way and they aren’t just going to walk away from this as if nothing happened. They’ve caused real damage with their frivolous filing and they are going to have to answer for that.”
Troutman Amin, LLP is a nationally-recognized complex litigation defense and privacy and telecommunications consulting law firm based in Irvine, California.
For more information about Troutman Amin, LLP visit TroutmanAmin.com
Media Contact Details
Eric Troutman
Troutman Amin, LLP
Website: www.TroutmanAmin.com
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