Attorney Sues TV Station for $1.4M, Says It Didn't Forward All Calls to His 'Ask the Lawyer' Show
A Texas personal injury lawyer has sued the television station that formerly broadcast a live call-in show he hosted that offered viewers a chance to ask questions of the attorney.
Thomas Corea of Dallas says he agreed to pay $2,750 per 30-minute episode of Ask the Lawyer with Tom Corea and that a key term of the deal, to him, was a promise by defendants CBS, CBS Stations Group of Texas and Viacom International to route all calls to the show to his law office, reports Courthouse News.
As the defendants understood and agreed, “simply having ‘a list’ of the names and telephone numbers of callers to the show was entirely insufficient and, for purposes of plaintiff’s ability to communicate with such callers to the show, would run directly contrary to the plaintiff’s professional responsibilities and ethical duties,” his Dallas County Court complaint states.
The plaintiff, the complaint says, was ethically bound “to not place itself in a position whereby it could be engaging in solicitation of legal representation (or barratry) because, with just a ‘name and telephone number,’ plaintiff had no indicia of if such callers were contacting the plaintiff with an inquiry about possible legal representation.”
Corea claims he’s been cheated out of $1.4 million in potential business by the station’s failure to forward calls as promised. His suit (PDF), which he filed pro se, asserts claims for breach of contract, civil conspiracy and deceptive trade practices, among multiple other torts.
The Dallas Observer’s Unfair Park blog also has a story and says it has sent a copy of the complaint to the local station for comment.
