Crist v. Loyacono

DICKINSON, Presiding Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Sixteen former clients sued two lawyers who had represented them in mass-tort litigation, claiming the lawyers had breached their fiduciary duty by prematurely settling their cases in order to maximize attorney fees. Responding to a motion for summary judgment, the former clients produced a witness — a mass-tort lawyer whom the defendant lawyers had associated, and then fired — who testified that he had settled numerous similar cases for much more than the former clients received. The lawyer also produced a settlement document he had prepared,…