HIDALGO COUNTY – Over the past several years, Edinburg attorney Kent Livesay has experienced his own share of legal troubles, from being fingered in a barratry lawsuit to being suspended for misconduct.
More recently, the Commission for Lawyer Discipline, an arm of the State Bar of Texas, hit Livesay with a suspension for barratry, commonly referred to as ambulance chasing.
The Commission entered an agreed judgment of partially probated suspension On Dec. 28, court records show.
The incidents of professional misconduct against Livesay include:
- A Livesay employee, Gustavo Lizandro Delavina Jr., traveled to North Carolina to solicit an individual injured on Sept. 21, 2015, when a tractor-trailer rear-ended a bus carrying migrant workers. A Miami law firm already represented the individual. In September 2016, Livesay’s staff represented to third parties that Livesay represented the individual. “Respondent (Livesay) had direct supervisory authority over his non-lawyer staff, but failed to make reasonable efforts to ensure that the conduct of the staff member was compatible with Respondent’s professional obligations,” the suspension states; and
- On May 8, 2015 a woman was inured in an auto accident in El Paso. A few days later, a man showed up at her resident and represented that he was acting on behalf of Livesay. As a result of the solicitation, the women met with Livesay’s legal assistant and signed a contingency fee agreement on May 20, 2015. “(The woman) had not sought legal services or advice from (Livesay) regarding her legal claims … and had no family or pat or present attorney-client relationship with (him),” the suspension states.
Livesay has been suspended for one year, which started Jan. 1.
As previously reported, on Aug. 8, 2016, the Commission filed a disciplinary petition against Livesay. An agreed judgment of active suspension was entered on Nov. 15, 2016, prohibiting Livesay from practicing law in 2017 and calling for him to surrender his license and State Bar Card before 2016 ends.
Livesay agreed to a one-year suspension for demanding damages from an insurance company on behalf of a client he did not represent.
In June, the Record reported that Livesay was facing criminal charges for engaging in organized crime.
Livesay was also a featured defendant in a barratry lawsuit.