AUSTIN - The Texas Supreme Court is set to decide whether attorneys in the state can face punishment for soliciting clients in hospitals and grave sites - even if those clients don't live in Texas.
October oral arguments in a Harris County lawsuit against Law Offices of Michael Pohl and The Ammons Law Firm concerned Texas' barratry law, which, among other things, prevents lawyers from advancing money to prospective clients to obtain their business.
The First District Court of Appeals ruled in 2022 that the attorneys' conduct occurred in Texas and that the barratry law can be extended to out-of-state conduct, meaning the two firms had to face a lawsuit from former clients in wrongful death cases.
It is alleged the firms used Michael Pohl's wife Donalda for a business - Helping Hands Financing - that convinced grieving family members to hire the firms, in exchange for the business loaning money to cover funeral expenses.
While that Mississippi company described itself as a marketing service, the families alleged it would target potential clients in hospitals and cemeteries within days of catastrophic incidents.
"Given the nature of the predicate violations giving rise to liability under (the civil barratry statute), achieving the statute's purpose of protecting those in need of legal services from unlawful barratry will ultimately require application to situations that involve some out-of-state activities," the plaintiffs wrote to the Supreme Court last year.
"Otherwise, a result never intended by the Legislature will occur: a person financing solicitation from Texas may be held criminally liable for conduct constituting barratry, but not civilly liable."
It is alleged a Mississippi company, Precision Marketing Group, received $5 million from Michael Pohl and others to solicit clients. Precision allegedly sent grieving families in need of quick money to Helping Hands, Donalda Pohl's company.
HHF allegedly offered funeral loans on the condition Michael Pohl would be hired as their lawyer.
Mark Cheatham Sr. was once such client. His wife Ladonna and two of their children died in Louisiana in a collision with a school bus in 2014.
Allegedly, Precision was dispatched for "marketing services" for a flat fee and a bonus from recovery from any lawsuit. The person sent to contact Mark Cheatham, Kenneth Talley, had already scooped up more than 25 clients for Pohl, including "cases where the target of the solicitation was in the hospital and sedated," Cheatham's lawyers wrote.
Talley went to Cheatham's house four days after the accident and offered $18,000 in financial help if Cheatham would hire Pohl as his lawyer.
In another case, Precision's Kirk Ladner flew to the home of Lacy Reese in Arkansas after her husband David died in an auto accident in July 2014. Ladner allegedly used money to sway Lacy Reese to hire Pohl and Ammons for her wrongful death lawsuit.
The lawsuits against the lawyers initially failed at the trial court before the First District reversed. Pohl's brief argues a two-year statute of limitations applies to claims like Cheatham's and Reese's, though a four-year window has been used throughout the case, and that their lawsuits are barred by the presumption against extraterritoriality.
He also says their law firm, Kassab Law Firm, acquired trade secrets and confidential client records that were stolen from him by the marketing firm he previously worked with.
Former owner of Precision Scott Favre gave the information to Kassab in exchange for $250,000 and cash bonuses for each barratry case, Pohl says.
Pohl won a $6.8 million verdict against Kassab in a 2023 trade secrets trial. Now he fights to keep his money.
"The First (District's) holding is creating mischief already," Pohl wrote. "At least one court has read the opinion as holding that the Texas 'anti-barratry statute applies to Texas lawyers if the prohibited acts take place in Texas, regardless of the location of the clients or runner."
If the Supreme Court rules against Pohl and Ammons, the case will proceed past the summary-judgment phase and toward trial.