Two lawyers who have traded hostile rhetoric in recent weeks as they try to gain advantage for their rival class-action suits -- which could produce $5 million for the victorious legal team -- opened a hearing with a schoolyard brawl, according to The (New Orleans) Times Picayune.
Attorneys Madro Bandaries and J. Robert Ates are pursuing class action lawsuits against Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Bandaries said he was sitting at the table when Ates came up behind him, put his hands on his shoulders and said something about Monday being Bandaries' funeral or the case's funeral, according to the paper. Bandaries claims that Ates then turned him around and pushed him.
"Next thing you know, he has me on the floor," Bandaries testified.
Judge Kern Reese (who was not amused) fined Ates $100 and ordered he spend 24 hours in jail; an order which the judge later recanted and released Ates from Central Lockup at 7 p.m.