question of ethics I guess

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

A small claims case was recently filed against someone for collection of expenses for services rendered. The day papers were served, the Dr. filing the case got a call from an attorney who claimed to be a long time friend of the person being sued for collection. He informed the Dr. that he would come after her, the woman who works for her and myself who represented the owner as her agent at the time services were performed and cause us all to have to pay a great amount in attorney fees if she did not dissmiss the case without predjudice.

The claim is legitimate, the person who failed to pay the bill submitted it to her insurance company for payment and recieved payment from them and then pocketed it instead of paying the bill. I believe the attorney in question knows the Dr will be awarded payment and so is trying to threaten her to withdraw.

Should I file a complaint with the CA bar and what if anything will that accomplish? None of us are interested in being sued for whatever reason he may come up with and if filing a compaint will not prevent that then he has all three of us in a corner. If the Dr. goes ahead and collects on the debt he will retaliate somehow and cost the Dr. more money than collected, he will go after her employee and myself as well. It is all so outrageously bizzare and I feel very strongly that he has threatened myself and the Dr and probably caused irrepairable damage to my relationship with the Dr.

loconnemaras said:

He informed the Dr. that he would come after her, the woman who works for her and myself who represented the owner as her agent at the time services were performed and cause us all to have to pay a great amount in attorney fees if she did not dissmiss the case without predjudice.

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It's impossible to tell from what you've written if the attorney can really come up with a valid cause of action for a lawsuit. It could be:

• Someone pretending to be an attorney trying to scare the Dr. into dropping the suit.
• A real attorney trying to scare the Dr. into dropping the lawsuit
• A real attorney with a client with a valid cause of action (malpractice?) who decided to forget the whole thing, but now that she is being sued, will proceed with the malpractice claim.

That's all I could think of off hand. I'm sure there are more possibilities.

Stevef,

It was most likely her attorney. I have a property dispute with her and am familiar with her attorney of record. He is obviously trying to scare the Dr into dropping the case. There is no pre existing dispute between the Dr and the client being sued, no malpractice. There is a current dispute between her and I that happened after the services were performed, hence the reason the Dr. may drop me as a client because I brought this rainstorm down on her head by bringing this other person to her as a client.

Is it considered exceptable practice for him to call and threaten her, her employee and me with further legal action if she doesn't drop the case? That case has nothing to do with me and it is money she is legally owed and is intitled to collect. The threat was non specific so I've no idea if he can find something or not and the only way to learn that is if the Dr. continues with the small claims case and we wait and see what he does. He's hoping the Dr won't take that risk.

loconnemaras said:

The threat was non specific

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I doubt there's much you can do about a non-specific threat.