Legal Malpractice

When the Damages are Huge, Look for Legal Malpractice to Follow

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

This story from Law.Com by Zusha Elinson tells of the aftermath of a $ 82 million Sony Patent case, with its reports of witness buying, false testimony and unreliable evidence.  From the Legal Malpractice perspective here is the nugget:

"Craig Thorner was the key witness in the Sony legal team's effort to overturn an $82 million patent infringement verdict in a case against Immersion Corp. over vibrating video game controllers. Sony claimed that Immersion paid Thorner to keep quiet about inventions of his that could have invalidated Immersion's patents.

But U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken wouldn't retry the case, concluding in 2006 that Thorner was an unreliable witness and that there was strong evidence -- supported by testimony and internal Sony documents -- that Sony paid $150,000 for Thorner's testimony.

The patent fight between Silicon Valley's Immersion and Sony, and its salacious post-trial motions, were followed closely by local lawyers.

In a wide-ranging suit filed Tuesday in New Jersey District Court, Thorner accuses Sony's outside and in-house lawyers of snookering him into the $150,000 deal, which came in the form of convoluted agreement to license his patents. He also accuses Sony's outside counsel -- Gregory Gewirtz of New Jersey firm Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik -- of malpractice for allegedly acting as his lawyer in the deal, but for Sony's benefit.

The lawsuit claims that the lawyers "contrived to take advantage of Thorner's inexperience and lack of resources in order to (i) obtain a patent license from Thorner on extremely favorable terms, and (ii) induce Thorner to testify against Immersion."

Reached Thursday afternoon, Gewirtz denied the allegations.

"In my view, all the allegations against me and my firm are reckless and false and all, of course, denied," he said. "We will very vigorously defend against all the claims."

The way the deal at issue worked, according to the lawsuit, was this: Electro Source -- a video game company also being sued by Immersion -- would pay Thorner $150,000 to license his patents. The deal, however, was actually being funded by Sony, which in turn got a license from Electro Source according to the lawsuit and court hearing transcripts.

Thorner claims that Gewirtz agreed to be his lawyer in the negotiations with Electro Source, but was actually looking out for Sony's interest
 

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).