Imagine if players had no uniforms or all dressed the same. Imagine if they could change sides at any moment and play for the other team. You wouldn't know what the heck was going on.
Lawyers are supposed to be on one side or the other, representing either plaintiffs or defendants. When it becomes unclear whom they're “playing” for, problems arise.
Whose side is Steve Mostyn on? In at least one case, it's not possible to know.
At one point he was on Tony Nouri's team. Then he was arguing against Nouri. Now it looks like they're on the same side again.
Last year, Nouri (dba Rankin Road) filed suit against Mostyn for inflating a storm policy claim for damage caused by Hurricane Ike, then quitting on him when the insurer, Lloyds of London, countersued.
In the meantime, Mostyn had sought to sever himself from the countersuit against his former client.
Two weeks ago, Nouri had a change of heart, dropped his suit against Mostyn, and requested to change his counsel to Mostyn's attorney, Murray Fogler.
Lloyds cried foul.
“In sum, after Mostyn withdrew in a belated attempt to avoid being tainted by the same fraud and misrepresentations their client had foisted on this court, and after Rankin Road accused Mostyn of filing false pleadings and other serious breaches of duty, they come to this court requesting to be represented by the same counsel that challenged Rankin Road’s allegations,” the company complains.
“Not only is the proposal an affront to the duty of undivided loyalty imposed on lawyers … but it also undermines the truth-seeking function of this court because it is designed to cloak their joint fraud on the court from scrutiny.”
Programs! Get your programs! You can't tell the players without a program!