Kirk v. Pope: Strange Event #4?
According to the Jerry Mitchell C/L story linked above, in reducing the damages, Judge DeLaughter did something else. The C/L story says: “In 2003, DeLaughter lowered Kirk’s award to $400,000, saying Pope’s trial counsel was inadequate.” That is very unusual thing for a judge to put in an order, in my experience.
Pope’s new lawyers (that would be Ed Peters and Cynthia Stewart) next filed a malpractice action against Pope’s former lawyer and settled that action for $275,000. Most of that money went to Peters and Stewart. The additional comment by Judge DeLaughter would certainly have helped that claim.
In our prior account of this, we noted three strange events in this case that seemed only explainable by the relationship between Peters and DeLaughter. The unusual statement in the order could likely have been so– Pope’s first lawyer paid a malpractice claim. But whatever explains it, this would seem to a fourth strange event in that case.
FOLO
1/28/8
Magnolia Tribune
