A Texas lawyer and his firm must pay $150,000 to a former client after a jury found them liable for bungling the woman's case.
In 2004, a federal court dismissed Alice Grimes' discrimination suit against her employer.
Grimes alleged her attorney, Ronald Reynolds of Brown, Brown & Reynolds, failed to timely respond to discovery requests and a motion for summary judgment and didn't notify her of the case's dismissal. She sued Reynolds and his firm for legal malpractice and malice after the State Bar determined that Reynolds had committed misconduct as to Grimes' case
She sought $75,000 to $150,000, claiming she would have recovered that much from her employer but for the defendants' conduct.
The defendants stipulated to negligence, but denied malice. They also argued that Grimes wouldn’t have prevailed in the underlying case.
The jury awarded $100,000 in actual damages and $50,000 in punitive damages after finding the harm resulted from malice.
The jury was on March 5.
