Legal Malpractice

$ 3.7 Million Verdict is "Too Small" in Legal Malpracice Case

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

We've been following this case.  Bank is scammed by person running a structured settlement company, and clients' structured settlement funds are lost.  Bank sues the attorney who recommended the structure guy, and on Friday, a jury awarded the bank $ 3.7 million in damages.

Here is the story of the verdict in Magna v. Coburn.

 "The day after he won $3.7 million in a legal malpractice case, East St. Louis lawyer Rex Carr said he would ask that part of the case be retried because he believes the jury should have awarded his client more money.

Carr had asked the jury for more than $11 million for his client, Regions Bank, then named Magna Bank. The bank had sued the St. Louis law firm of Thompson Coburn, alleging that bad legal advice opened the bank to liability in the meltdown of financial scam artist James Gibson in the 1990s.

Gibson's scheme involved the establishment of trusts for people, mostly accident victims, who had won large civil suit awards or settlements. Gibson initially invested the money with various banks, including Magna, but eventually took direct control of the money through a series complicated court cases.

Gibson then lavishly spent the money on himself and his family and squandered most of it on a failed attempt to resurrect the National supermarket chain.Advertisement
In the end, 155 investors lost some or all of their funds, more than $60 million at the time and more than $150 million in promised payments over time. Gibson was sent to prison for 40 years. "

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on January 01, 1970 (boomark / email).