Can I sue for legal expenses?

[edingmik83]

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

I am in a band and what has happened is an ex-member is suing us claiming he owns us and the band and his lawyers are demanding $100k/20% until $100k is reached, of our future gross income. His original claim demanded $300k. We told his lawyers no and ignored them. Over the course of a year, they tried to negotiate with us, which we refused to pay him anything other than have him pay for our past legal counsel. They changed the demand to $100k and tried to have a summary judgment brought against us. The band then got a permanent lawyer to fight for us and stand in if we couldn't be at the hearing. The judge read the first page and immediately said no, in our favor of paying him nothing. He is also attacking our personal assets as well, though for some reason dropped the suit against my personal assets but I still have to pay for the lawyers because he's still suing the band. His lawyers still push it causing us to have to pay our lawyer more money to fight this. He doesn't have a leg to stand on it but it seems he's apparently got money to burn and is doing this more so to force us to lose money on paying for a lawyer. By the way, way may gross about $250k a year but after expenses and paying for our booking agent, with 5 members, we take home at most about $30k/year. If we lose this suit, we'd be forced into making about $16k-17k/year so he's obviously trying to destroy the band because no one would work for that little. We've lost a bass player already due to him not wanting to be involved with so many lawyers. The former member is blatantly and deliberately just trying to mess with us and force us to spend money we can't afford, but have to. The band only owns an equipment trailer that's close to no value due to damage and depreciation. We don't save money, or as a partnership claim a profit for the "business". We split everything evenly. There's no partnership contract and there is a mutual understanding that when a member is fired or quits, he is given the opportunity to finish the next week or two of shows to allow them time to find a new job. There is no monetary compensation offered because that person isn't earning the money nor is there any money that can be afforded to pay that person. The former member knows all of this well seeing as he quit once and was fired before I was hired.

Anyway, my question is can I sue him in small claims for my share of the money I've paid to the lawyer? If so, what exactly for? After all is said and done, it'll be between $3-4k for my share of the legal expenses. It might seem petty but I kinda need the money. I've already spent my savings trying to pay bills and I'm forced to find cheaper housing, as well as penny pinch and get rid of any unnecessary expenses like cable tv(my son hates this one). Aside from the financial hardship, also the hardship of having to listen to my fiance complain about not being able to afford anything!

Thanks for your help. Sorry I wrote so much. I just thought it would help if you knew the whole story.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

No, you can't sue in small claims for legal costs for a different action. You would have to add a counter-claim in the current action for legal fees.

 

[latigo]

For obvious reasons our judicial system does not permit the stacking of lawsuits. Otherwise there would be no end to litigation.

The focus here should be whether or not the plaintiff’s claims and the manner in which he is pursuing them are so lacking in legal substance as to render his lawsuit frivolous and without foundation and thus permit the court to impose sanctions upon the plaintiff in the form of attorney fees.

But this is an issue that needs to be considered by your attorney in light of North Carolina law.

What little I have been able to find indicates that although North Carolina has not officially adopted Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or something similar, nevertheless the courts of that state have imposed sanctions against both the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s attorney when a cause of action is found to be unreasonably prosecuted.

You might ask your attorney to explain to you the ruling in the North Caroling case of Foy v. Hunter, 418 S.E.2d 299. I haven’t read it and only mention it because of this reference in a dissertation on the subject of FRCP Rule 11:

“North Carolina has not adopted Rule 11 but does allow sanctions to be imposed against an attorney or client for actions taken in bad faith. See Foy v. Hunter, 418 S.E.2d 299 (N.C.App. 1992).”