Law Humor

Attorney Sued For Nose Biting; Claims Self-Defense

By Kevin Underhill

According to media on Friday, a Memphis attorney has been sued by a man who is missing part of his nose.  It appears that Greg Herbers is blaming Mark Lambert for the injury to his nose, on the grounds that Lambert is the one who bit it off.

Well, part of it, anyway.  According to the lawsuit, Lambert, who is a trial attorney with The Cochran Firm, got into an argument with Herbers in the men's room of a popular local restaurant.  Oddly enough, they do not agree on who started it, although there is no dispute that it ended in severe nasal infringement.  Herbers alleges that Lambert was carrying on a conversation with two other men who were not identified, but who are presumably close friends because according to Herbers they were both in the same stall.  (This restaurant may have a duty to expand its facilities, if the overcrowding is so severe that people are actually being forced to share bathroom stalls.)  Herbers says he asked the two gentlemen to vacate, at which point Lambert intervened, grabbed Herbers, and bit off and swallowed part of his nose.

The police report apparently confirms severe damage to Herbers' left nostril, but does not speculate as to its current whereabouts.

According to WMC-TV in Memphis, Lambert denied much of Herbers' story.  He insisted he had "only acted in self-defense after Herbers physically assaulted him for no reason."  A potential problem with the self-defense argument, though, is that Lambert "admitted to biting off part of Herbers' nose" (although he strongly denied swallowing it).  It is a little hard for me to visualize a situation where that is a necessary defense strategy, unless maybe Herbers was attacking Lambert with his nose and Lambert was just trying to disarm him.  Obviously, however, all the facts are not yet in.

The lawsuit seeks damages for medical bills, plastic surgery expenses, and also $5 million in punitive damages.

Link: AP via Yahoo! News
Link: WMC-TV.com (Memphis)

Full post as published by Lowering the Bar on December 20, 2009 (boomark / email).