Hulk Hogan Files Suit - Against His Lawyers
Most people hate the feeling that they are getting ripped off - and that doesn’t just stop at your average everyday person. Celebrities don’t like it either, but they have a much larger pay scale to worry about.
Former wrestler Hulk Hogan, also known as Terry Bollea, filed a lawsuit in Pinellas County, Fla. against his lawyers, according to Tampa Bay Online.
The lawsuit states that the lawyers overcharged him $1 million for his son Nick’s car crash back in 2007. Nick had crashed his vehicle into a palm tree after his car jumped over a median. He and his passenger, John Graziano, were severely injured and taken to the hospital.
In the lawsuit, Hogan is claiming he paid more than $1 million to his lawyers to defend his son for a civil case filed by Graziano from the accident.
According to the Tampa Bay papers, Hogan states that his insurance company, Progressive Select Insurance Co., could and should have supplied him an attorney at no cost to him under his insurance policy.
At the time of the accident, the vehicle Nick was driving, a Toyota Supra, was insured by Progressive. The policy covered bodily injury limits of $250,000 per person and has a total limit of $500,000 per accident. Progressive would defend the policy holder if any civil suit arose from the accident.
Hogan states that no one at the insurance company had contacted him with this information until much later after he decided to hire out different attorneys, Tampa Bay Online reported.
About two weeks after the accident Hogan decided to consult with Morris Weinberg Jr. and Lee Fugate from the Zuckerman Spaeder law firm. He hired them to defend his son Nick against criminal charges and to protect him against civil lawsuits.
Hogan later found out the insurance company had sent letters to everyone except for him - including his business managers and his financial managers stating the company had appointed him an attorney. Word of this, according to Hogan, also reached his newly hired attorneys, but they never told him they received the letter.
He also alleges that the attorneys told Progressive Hogan wanted only this law firm to represent him and they came to an agreement with the insurance company that they would only charge Hogan $145/per hour.
According to Tampa Bay news reports, Hogan claims the law firm charged him much higher rates from $475 and up. Hogan could no longer retain the law firm for the case.
Progressive had already paid the firm $350,000 from the $444,000 they were seeking in reimbursement. The insurance company then decided they were no longer going to represent Hogan due to his bills being “grossly inflated and unnecessary.”
The firm states that Hogan’s claims are “baseless” and they will fight in court.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:12 am
Excellent ideas here, have emailed my mum so expect a big reply!!