Hulk Hogan Is Suing His Son’s Attorneys
The harsh world of legalities must be all too familiar for Hulk Hogan, but this time the semi-retired pro-wrestler has decided to sue the professionals whose job it was to stand up for him.
Hogan filed a lawsuit in the Pinellas County on Monday against two attorneys, Morris “Sandy” Weinberg Jr. and Lee Fugate, of the firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, with claims that the men (who defended him and son Nick Bollea following Nick’s 2007 car crash) for cheating him out of over $1.5 million.
According to the suit, Hulk’s automotive insurance company Progressive was obligated to cover all necessary legal costs, however the lawyers named allegedly failed to notify him of this and continued to bill at excessively high rates. Hulk also claimed that Progressive attempted numerous times to communicate with him over the incident, but the Zuckerman Spaeder legal team did not make him aware of their letters. By the time he understood his entitlements, he claims the relationship with the insurers had been “terminated.”
“It is common knowledge throughout the legal profession experienced in such matters, especially in the area of insurance defense litigation and personal injury law, that automobile insurance policies include the aforementioned duty to defend the insured, as well as any permissive user, should a civil suit arise or the possibility of a civil claim exist,” the lawsuit stated. “Defendants made no effort to advise of this important fact. Defendants were further aware, or should have been, that Bollea had no experience in the area of insurance.”
“The charges made by Terry Bollea are simply baseless. The Bollea’s came to Zuckerman Spaeder under very difficult circumstances. Both Terry Bollea and his son faced the threat of criminal prosecution and civil litigation. Zuckerman Spaeder, working with a co-counsel, achieved a very favorable result in the criminal case,” a rep from the firm told Tarts in a statement. “We absolutely dispute and will contest the claims made against us.”
But on the note of Nick Bollea’s tragic accident, the now 24-year-old John Graziano, who was in the passenger seat of Bollea’s vehicle at the time, was finally released from the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital last Wednesday, over two years after the incident. Graziano suffered severe brain damage, reportedly leaving him in a vegetative state.
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Deputies at a west Florida jail have transferred Hulk Hogan’s son out of solitary confinement into a communal cell.
Seventeen-year-old Nick Bollea is now sharing living space with three other juvenile inmates.
He initially was segregated because he is a minor, albeit convicted in adult court. A judge denied a transfer request from his lawyers on Tuesday.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda says housing assignments are routinely reviewed because the jail’s population constantly changes. That created an opportunity to house juveniles together.
Bollea is serving an eight-month sentence after pleading no contest to causing a crash that seriously injured his friend.
Nick Bollea is suing a Florida sheirff’s department for releasing tapes of his jailhouse conversations with his mother and wrestler father Hulk Hogan, attorneys said Tuesday.
The suit alleges that the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office violated Bollea’s privacy rights and seeks to stop the sheriff from releasing further tapes.
“Nick only asks that he be treated no differently than the other inmates at the Pinellas County Jail,” says Bollea attorney Morris “Sandy” Weinberg. “Instead, the Sheriff’s Office has singled him out by the unprecedented release to the media of his personal calls with his family.”
A sheriff spokeswoman said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Bollea, 17, is serving an eight-month sentence after pleading no contest to felony reckless driving stemming from a car crash that left his friend, John Graziano, in critical condition.
In the tapes, released to the media under a public records request, Bollea calls the victim a “negative person,” asks his father to set up a reality show for him after he gets out of jail and complains about the size of his cell.
On Monday, Bollea’s lawyers filed court papers requesting that he be removed from solitary confinement, where he is being held because as a minor he isn’t allowed to mix with the adult jail population.
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