EDWARDSVILLE – Randy Gori’s widow Beth Gori withdrew subpoenas for files of late local lawyers Joseph Brown and Thomas Falb, who represented a former Gori client currently suing his estate and his firm in Ohio.
Randy Gori served Ohio and Illinois subpoenas last year on Brown’s firm, Lucco Brown of Edwardsville, and Falb’s firm, Williamson Webster of Alton.
Both firms moved to quash the subpoenas at Madison County chancery court in August, as an invasion of attorney client privilege.
Gori counsel A.J. Bronsky of St. Louis filed withdrawal notices in Ohio on Sept. 17, and in Illinois on Sept. 22.
He reserved a right to issue them again at a later date.
The plaintiff in the Ohio action, Kathleen Jones, retained Brown for a family dispute over a settlement that Gori’s firm negotiated in Madison County asbestos court.
Brown found a conflict of interest within his firm and referred Jones to Falb, who negotiated an allocation.
Jones sued Gori and his firm in 2017, at the Warren County court of common pleas in Lebanon, Ohio.
She also sued Gori lawyers Sara Salger, Erin Beavers, Martavious Thomas, Todd Mathews, Brandon Belt, and current associate judge Barry Julian.
She claimed the firm settled too cheaply with AK Steel, former employer of her husband Ralph “Tiger” Jones, in Madison County asbestos court.
She claimed Gori failed to discover that a workers’ compensation claim would have produced a better result.
She argued that Tiger died of an occupational disease and that as a young spouse she would have received benefits for a long time.
Joseph Brown died in 2017.
Thomas Falb died in 2018.