Famed Houston plaintiffs’ lawyer John O’Quinn is used to doing the targeting in the lawsuits in which he is involved. But in the bizarre world of litigation swirling around the estate of the late Anna Nicole Smith, O’Quinn has become the target.
Howard K. Stern, a former attorney and companion of Smith, filed the defamation suit on April 13 against O’Quinn in federal district court in the Southern District of Florida. Stern bases his lawsuit on allegedly defamatory statements that O’Quinn made to the media while representing Smith’s mother in connection with litigation in Florida and the Bahamas that erupted after Smith’s death from a drug overdose earlier this year. Stern is alleging defamation and false light/invasion of privacy causes of action against O’Quinn, taking dead aim at O’Quinn’s multi-hundred million dollar net worth. This press release was issued by Stern’s lawyer, L. Lin Wood, a lawyer out of of Atlanta.
In the event this one makes it to trial (highly doubtful, in my view), it sounds ready made for Court TV.