Dripps
A long-fought legal malpractice case that has entangled a number of high-profile Madison County attorneys is headed to the appellate court in Mount Vernon.
Plaintiff Judy Buckles has appealed three orders signed by Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder that had let some of those attorneys out of the suit.
Buckles filed her notice of appeal Sept. 3.
Buckles claims her former attorneys from the Hopkins Goldenberg law firm – now Goldenberg, Heller, Antognoli, Rowland and Short – as well as John Simmons and his law firm failed to properly handle her late husband's asbestos claims in the 1990s.
She originally filed suit in 2001 before dropping that case and re-filing the suit five years later.
As a result of the alleged legal malpractice, Buckles claims she lost out on settlement moneys.
Simmons and his firm were granted summary judgment last year. However, Buckles had asked Crowder to vacate that summary judgment in motions filed earlier this year.
Crowder denied the move March 11, declining to bring Simmons and his firm back into the suit.
The Goldenberg firm also won summary judgment on several counts of
the case.
Defendant attorney William Miller has also been dismissed from the suit.
The case had been set for trial in June.
That trial was canceled after the plaintiff asked Crowder to certify questions for appeal.
Crowder had helmed the case.
Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack now oversees the suit.
Roy Dripps of St. Louis represents the plaintiff.
The Goldenberg firm is represented by John Papa of Granite City and Daniel Konicek of Geneva.
The case is Madison case number 06-L-588.