Our inauguratory entry is from The Volokh Conspiracy’s Short Circuit column:
Litigation financing, heartbreak, and recusal collide in this Texas-sized debacle. A litigation financing company has a stake in 21 lawsuits being litigated by a Mexican law firm. But one of the law firm’s owners is embroiled in a divorce in Texas, and his interest in the law firm is part of the marital estate. So the litigation financing company intervenes in the divorce proceeding to protect its investment in the law firm and to collect debts owing to the firm. But the lawyer the company hires to collect the soon-to-be-divorced lawyer’s debts turns out to also be law partners with the divorce court judge. Which—when uncovered—explodes the litigation financing company’s efforts to recover its investment and leaves it having wasted $2 mil in attorney fees. Yikes! But that’s just the beginning. The litigation financing company then sues the lawyer for malpractice. No, not the lawyer getting the divorce. The other one; the one it originally hired to recover its investment but who had the business relationship with the judge. And in response to the company’s suit, the lawyer commits what the Fifth Circuit later describes as a “litany of litigatory misbehavior.” Which leads to the district court’s striking the lawyers’ pleadings, entering a default judgment in favor of the litigation financing company, and awarding nearly $3 mil in damages. Fifth Circuit: The default judgment shall stand, but the district court needs to recalculate the damages award.
I get dizzy just reading it.
