Deutsch v. Hoover, Bax & Slovacek, L.L.P.

The law firm of Hoover, Bax & Slova-cek, L.L.P. sued its former client, George Deutsch, for more than $60,000 in unpaid fees. Naturally, he responded with a counterclaim; indeed, it was a word-processor-created blizzard that included lists of fifteen identical acts, omissions, and conflicts of interest, each of which was alleged to constitute negligence and breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty and negligent misrepresentation and (with slightly shorter but still identical lists) DTPA and fraud. Mercifully for the jury, the seasoned trial judge condensed these duplicative claims into…