Ex-lawyer sues ex-clients over judgment

Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, KY.

A former Cincinnati lawyer who was disbarred in Kentucky over taking excessive fees in a $200 million settlement involving the diet drug fen-phen has sued five former clients seeking to collect their share of a $42 million judgment and their lawyer.

Carol Boggs, 72, of Ironton, Ohio, is one of the former clients. She told The Courier-Journal in Louisville that she was forced into bankruptcy and to sell her jewelry while she waits for her share of the judgment.

Boggs asked in a recent hearing why Stan Chesley was suing her when he and other lawyers were found to have stolen money from her and other clients.Boggs testified Aug. 19.

Kentucky courts ordered Chesley and disbarred lawyers Shirley Cunningham, Melbourne Mills and William Gallion to pay more than 400 former clients in the case. Chesley sued Lexington lawyer Angela Ford, who now represents the former clients, to block her from trying to collect in Ohio.

A judge in Cincinnati has barred Ford from collecting against Chesley so far. Ford asked the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss Chesley’s suit and remove the judge, Robert Ruehlman.

Chesley named Boggs and four other former Ohio clients as defendants.

Ford said in court papers filed Sept. 4 that Chesley’s sole purpose in filing the suit last January is to delay collection so he can continue to receive millions of dollars from his former law firm and “dissipate his assets so that his judgment creditors cannot collect.”