Lawyer in $315 million lottery lawsuits ordered to pay fine

Comment #8

HiYoSilver — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:32:53 GMT

Too bad this is not done in most lawsuits where people are sued needlessly. Make the loser pay the legal fees and you would see a 90% drop in lawsuits over night.

The same thing should happen if you are accused of a crime and acquitted. Had a friend accused of getting kickbacks for construction jobs. It cost him over 20 thousand to defend himself and then the case was dropped because the company had made a mistake. He couldn't sue to recover his money because it was a government agency that... [ More ]

Comment #7

RJOh — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:58:26 GMT

Unless their lawyer included the phrase I don't get paid unless you get paid in his contract, they still have to come up with some money to pay him.

Comment #6

konane — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:25:57 GMT

Totally awesome precedent in both regards ..... hope it's the beginning of a national trend which eliminates frivolous lawsuits of all types.

Comment #5

CA LotteryGuy — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:20:20 GMT

The item in the article I found very interesting was that the defendants ... contend it was their first time they took part in the office pool. Therefore how it would have been very difficult to prove there was an oral agreement that everyone would be included whenever they pooled their money to buy ticket. That may have been why the judge took the action he did. Had there been a history of purchases with a patttern of activity developed, it might have been different.

Comment #4

Jill34786 — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:05:58 GMT

The judge should have also fined the 4 co-workers who brought up the suit. Attaching a portion of their wages would have been fair as well as sweet justice.

Comment #3

Raven62 — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:51:08 GMT

This one is for the History Books: They Dismissed the Lawsuit and they Fined the Attorney

Comment #2

Todd — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:47:21 GMT

Comment #1

RJOh — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:29:31 GMT

I would like to see more such decisions handed down, maybe it would stop people with fruitless claims suing lottery winners or trying to black-mail them into a settlement to avoid the additional expense and delay of going to court.

Lawyer in $315 million lottery lawsuits ordered to pay fine

Lottery Post — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:00:00 GMT

A lawyer representing three people who sued their co-workers seeking a share of their $315 million lottery win was ordered Tuesday to pay a nearly $382,000 fine.

Orange County Judge Michael Brenner ordered attorney Mark H. Williams to pay the seven lottery winners after determining he pursued the lawsuits knowing the allegations lacked merit.

The amount was the equivalent to legal fees incurred by the Lucky Seven, who pooled money to buy the winning Mega Millions multi-state lottery tick... [ More ]