Hylla
Dawna Hale, a former attorney with the Mallon Law Firm, has filed a motion to compel financial and other documents from the estate of attorney Lance Mallon and the successor to his firm.
Hale filed her motion to compel June 2, alleging that Jeanette Mallon, the representative of Lance Mallon's estate, and the other defendants in the case have not responded to March 4 discovery requests.
Hale was an attorney with Lance Mallon's firm until his death last year from cancer.
She is suing his estate, Keith Short, Mallon & Short, the successor to Lance Mallon's previous law firm, Jennifer Rushton, and Mark Goldenberg.
Hale claims that she was not paid substantial fees for work she did during Lance Mallon's illness.
She later resigned from the firm.
The plaintiff is seeking damages in excess of $40,000, punitive damages, and other relief.
Hale had also filed to intervene in Lance Mallon's probate case but that move is on hold pending the outcome of the civil suit.
Several of the defendants including Short, Goldenberg, and Rushton have moved to dismiss Hale's claims against them.
They argue that they were not under any obligation to pay her 2010 salary and that she has slanted the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act to suit her own purposes.
Madison County Circuit Judge David Hylla had been set to hear motions in the case including the dismissal moves in May but the judge didn't rule.
According to an order signed by the judge May 20, the motions were "passed by parties for settlement."
However, there are no other indications of settlement talks or a settlement reached among the parties recorded in the case's filings or docket sheet as of Tuesday.
Hale's June 2 motion asks the judge to compel the production of profit and loss statements from the Mallon firm for 2010, letterheads for letters and other publications from 2007 to the present, a list of all the firm's 2010 cases with the initials of the lawyer who was assigned to each, records of settlement moneys received by the firm, tax and other financial documents.
Hylla is set to hear pending motions in the case July 22 at 9:30 a.m.
John Dale Stobbs represents Hale.
Thomas Keefe Jr. represents Short, Rushton, and the Mallon & Short firm.
Joseph Brown represents Jeanette Mallon and Goldenberg.
The case is Madison case number 11-L-181.