Carlos the Clown stands accused of committing legal malpractice in a wrongful death lawsuit. Adrian Murry made the claim in a lawsuit she filed against Carlos Moore and his law firm in Forrest County Circuit Court yesterday.
The complaint states Adrian Murry's son, Kendrick, was a car hop at a Hattiesburg Sonic Drive-In. He began suffering seizures after he fell and struck his head at work. An ambulance took him to the hospital. Paramedic administered several drugs to treat the seizures. A neurosurgeon diagnosed him with a blood clot in the brain and a cerebral contusion with herniation (parts of brain are squeezed past the skull). He died on September 12, 2015. He was 25 years old.
His estate filed a petition to controvert with the Workers Comp Commission in December 2015. A trial was scheduled for September 20, 2017. Ms. Murry retained Carlos Moore and the Moore Law Group.
Ms. Murry claims Mr. Moore called her the morning of the trial and said the judge warned they would lose the case. He allegedly told her to settle the claim for $10,000 because "there was high cannabinoid levels" in her son's system. She settled the case. Her petition for approval of a final compromise stated the "toxicology report revealed high cannabinoid levels."
The complaint states Ms. Murry finally received a copy of the toxicology report.
Upon reviewing the documents. she discovered that the examination of the specimens submitted "did m,t reveal any positive findings of toxicological significance"" other than Etomidate, Diazepam, and Lorazepam. Those were the medications administered by the EMTs to combat his seizures on September 5, 2015 after he fell....The plaintiff said Mr. Moore "misrepresented the truth to her cause her to settle the workers compensation claim for less" than she might have obtained in court.
The autopsy report ruled that Kendrick Murry's cause of death was blunt head trauma. Cannabinoid was not listed as a cause or contributing factor to his death.
The complaint charges the Grenada attorney with breach of contract, negligence/malpractice, fraudulent misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty. Adrian Murry asked for $100,000 in compensatory damages. She is representing herself.
27 comments:
"She is representing herself."
Many of us know the old legal maxim, "She who represents herself has a fool for an opponent..." Wait, that's not the maxim...but in the instant case, it ought to be.
Judging by the layout and content of the complaint, this woman has legal help in the background.
Obviously ole Carlos was not prepared for trial and decided he better bail out rather than be caught again with his pants down. Some poor suckers assume that there is a standard of practice required of all lawyers or they would not be allowed to represent clients. Same with doctors. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ole Carlos is just workin' his hustle. Why not?
The guy needs to be disbarred immediately.
Wonder if a bar complaint is pending
THE Best of Jackson 2019
Funny thing about this one - the Clown may have been right in that she should have settled; there would be no legitimate WC claim for him having a seizure at work and falling. Was not a work related injury, therefore no legitimate worker's comp claim.
But she might well have a good malpractice claim against the new President of the National Black Lawyers Assn for his misrepresenting the facts. Hope she wins; that way all the good guys come out ahead. Carlos pays for his clown-act, the company doesn't have to fight a ridiculous WC claim (although their carrier, and therefore their experience rate, has to pay an inappropriate $10k) and the woman gets a bonus benefit for hiring the clown in the first place.
"Judging by the layout and content of the complaint, this woman has legal help in the background."
Just to toss this out there, that might be an interesting albeit risky strategy. File pro se, let Carlos, well, be himself for the prelims, and then when the judge suggests the Plaintiff consider obtaining counsel, some shorenuf real highstepper needing a little pro bono work enters an appearance and uses Mr. Moore, Esq. for a pinata with his own previous filings.
The funny thing is that if Carlos was an advertiser or donor to this site, the public would never read about this event or his prior bad acts.
The clown is terrified of actually going to trial. He isn't a "trial lawyer," but rather a settle the case ASAP type of lawyer.
Attn 12:42 She very well could have a good malpractice suit against him, but he has proven numerous times that he will not pay, and there appears nothing the system can (or will) do to collect from him. If you want to assess blame, why not start with the Mississippi Bar association.
@12:42 your reading comprehension is skruggling. he fell and hit his head THEN had the seizures. I know nothing about it but envision him being on skates.
"The guy needs to be disbarred immediately."
Not likely for at least two reasons: 1. The defense bar (i.e., what passes for "biglaw" in MS) needs all kinds of Plaintiff's counsel to keep what's left of a sad gravy train lurching along, especially those who file things just this side of a very murky and fungible line, and 2. Moore knows that his shit don't stink any worse than a whole lot of white Mississippi attorneys on both sides of litigation and if the MS Bar gets snippy with him about his shenanigans, as long as he doesn't go waaaaay over the aforementioned murky line, he will holler "racism" and it will actually have some tinges of merit. And the MS Bar knows both 1 and 2 above.
12:42 PM
It's free because it's not worth a damn. You'd probably get better news from the bums in downtown.
1:45 is exactly correct ! ! The MS Bar in itself is a clown act. I wonder how many of them ride in the same car?
Thirty years ago I filed a formal complaint with the MS Bar Association against an ambulance/hearse chasing attorney for an unsolicited attempt to file suit against someone which I had no desire to do anyway for the death of our infant child. There was absolutely NO WAY this guy knew anything at all of the circumstances of the death other than to read the obit in the paper. The attorneys solicitation letter was in our mail box when we came home from our child's funeral. I never really understood who he wanted to file suit against. The Almighty I guess since the death was of natural causes.
The MS Bar Associations response was that the attorney had broken no laws therefore no action would be taken.
That one incident is what soured my opinion of attorneys. I feel the same way to this day because of one clown.
Defense attorney here who has had multiple cases opposite Carlos. Yes, he is hands-down the worst attorney in this state. Yes, he should face professional discipline charges for any number of his most recent shenanigans. Yes, he is a literal wart on the ass of this profession.
That being said, I love it when Carlos is on the other side. He's the perfect combination of lazy and stupid, so his cases never put my clients in any type of real danger and I get to bill the hell out of his ineptitude along the way. Its a win-win situation.
However, I am definitely cheering for the pro se plaintiff here--eventually his malpractice insurance premiums alone may keep him out of business.
MS Bar has the laziest investigators in the state, maybe the country. Hands down you will get not help if your attorney screws up
" he fell and hit his head "
Everybody shut up !!!!
I think I hear an ambulance.
I've got to chase it.
Do the investigators get envelopes full of cash delivered to their doorstep? They need law and order?
I hope she wins! Shame on Carlos and shame on those who support him!
He’s wanting $300 from his presidency assn and now settling for 3-4 stacks on a worker’s compensation death...
Wake up y’all! Dude is on dope. Probably good dope albeit, but nonetheless dope.
If the evidence supports the allegations of Moore's conduct with this client, and she files a complaint, I expect this may be the case that finally takes him out of the profession. I, like others, have wanted to see him brought to heel for all of his repeated jackassery. But, this is the type of misconduct that it takes for the Bar to move on a professional license, if a complaint is filed.
I agree that the complaint was clearly drafted by an attorney, and can only speculate as to why it was filed pro se. Maybe she first brought it to someone on the eve of the running of the statute of limitations, and they gave it to her to protest the statute, but wanted to do some due diligence before entering an appearance.
Or maybe the litigants are so difficult the putative attorney just gave her the pleading and told her to get out. An unreasonable person with a good case is their own worst enemy. I suspect that's what the comment at 12:13 is saying.
Claim is so ludicrous that a lawyer drafted the complaint but would not sign it.
She is pro se and this case will rot.
"Her petition for approval of a final compromise stated the 'toxicology report revealed high cannabinoid levels.'" The Plaintiff also asserts as fact that the tox report was clean and possibly that it was not even finished and available at the time of the petition. All of these are either easily and readily verifiable facts or they are not.
I've waited to see if anyone else noticed this. Apparently not. If - IF - the above assertions are true and Moore signed (or even can be shown to have drafted, advised, etc.) that petition, he has a problem. And as to the Defendant(s) in the original case, if - IF - it or they can be shown to have had knowledge that the toxicology report was clean or not even ready yet, it/they may have a problem as well. I can barely read the complaint - any mention of the previous Defendant(s) counsel or any possible role in this? Did they sign off on a false or non-existent tox report? Assuming any or all of it to be true, it sure clears a path for all sorts of interesting developments in the litigation.
Jesus, some in the MS legal community wonder why deep-pocket, at-risk Defendants bring in outside counsel to grade the locals' papers. This is why. Hell, if it weren't for local counsel rules and the (foolish-but-not-unwarranted) desire on the part of some corporate defendants for a little home cooking, a significant number of firms wouldn't have much work.
Looks like maybe Carlos was up early this morning, or perhaps still up from the night before.
Mississippi offers the public all the justice they can afford to buy and justice can be very expensive when the opponent is Boss Hogg or any of his friendly $upporters.
Another Workers’ Comp attorney here. I want to share a few things about how the law would apply in this type of situation along with how settlements are handled from a procedural standpoint.
A person may have a seizure at work for which the employer and their workers’ comp carrier will not be responsible for the seizure. However, if the person falls as a result of the seizure and sustains an injury to their head or other body part from the “impact” of the fall then the employer and comp carrier are responsible for the injuries. If someone is found to have illegal drugs in their system at the time of their work injury then the employer and workers’ comp carrier can deny the claim by raising the intoxication defense. The burden then shifts to the injured worker (referred to as “Claimant” in workers’ comp) to prove that their intoxication was not a contributing cause to the accident.
All workers’ comp settlements are required to be presented to the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission for consideration of approval. All settlements require the signature of the injured worker and/or the deceased dependents, their attorney if represented, and an attorney for the employer and carrier.
The mother herself would have had to sign the Petition for Approval along with Mr. Moore. I would imagine that there has to be more facts to the story here as their would be no reason for Mr. Moore to concede a drug defense without having seen the toxicology report. Likewise, their would be no legitimate reason a workers’ comp defense attorney would state such a thing in the Petition without grounds as the Commission can require proof of the same. I’m not saying either of the above couldn’t happen, but it would be shocking for both attorneys to sign a pleading making a representation to the Commission concerning something that is totally not true.
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