Legal Advice? (think I need actual lawyers and law students)

My cousin, let's call him "Larry," came to me with this issue, figuring that since I'm going to law school next year I could help him out. Unfortunately, I have no idea. Here's the situation

Larry entered a vandalized bathroom at a nightclub in NYC when he was confronted by 4-5 of the club's bouncers. They accused him of causing the damage, which he denied. He did not provoke them, and in attempting to leave the scene, they attacked him, bruising him up pretty badly and breaking his nose (nothing else, thankfully). This was about five years ago and he sued the nightclub owner.

Fast forward to a few months ago The court awarded Larry damages somewhere in the range of $100,000-$150,000. However, it turns out the nightclub was owned by a corporation and the "owner" of the club sold all of his shares in the corporation to someone else. I'm not sure, but I think this "owner" still acts a manager and runs the place.

Larry tells me that his lawyer explained it to him in the following way since the owner of the club no longer owns the club, he's not responsible for paying the damages. The new "owner" of the club isn't responsible for anything because the incident occurred before he was the owner. The lawyer said that there is nothing that can be done and that it is a lost cause.

Now, Larry thinks that maybe his lawyer had screwed up in some way. Maybe he was supposed to contact the owner and tell him that he cannot sell his shares in the corporation until the case is settled? Maybe the lawyer didn't handle the case well? Larry thinks that he should now sue the lawyer for mishandling the case and losing Larry's settlement.

Personally, I think that the owner or corporation got away too easily. I don't know much about the law (yet), but it seems to me that even if the owner sold off his shares, shouldn't the corporation remain responsible? After all, a corporation is legally a person, right?

If anyone with law experience knows what can be done in this complicated situation, please post here. Larry has nowhere to turn and the few lawyers he's spoken to about it seem wary of suing another lawyer. Pretty much any input/advice would be appreciated.

I'm no lawyer, and I don't pretend to know much about the law...but this seems pretty ridiculous.

The owners of Enron couldnt have gotten off the hook simply by selling their shares...

I guess the question to ask is, who did your friend sue? Was it the nightclub, or the owner? Or maybe that is one in the same?
I'm not sure, but if it was in fact the nightclub, then the new owner is responsible for all of the debits and credits already racked up.

Tell him to get a second opinion...

this probably isnt a very good place to ask for legal advice.. if you dont wanna pay for advice, theres a lot of free legal forums and stuff on the internet.. just type free legal advice or free legal forums in google. heres a good board i found - http//forum.freeadvice.com/[]http//forum.freeadvice.com/

You sued the corporation not the owner. The corporation is a entity upon itself, just like a person, in the eyes of the law. This allows the owners not to have liability, and the corporation can go bankrupt without the owners having to also.

Anyway it seems like the guy sold the corporation to another person. As long as the corporation did not disolve you should still be able to take money from the corporation. But it could have been he sold the corporation to another corporation so the original corporation does not exist.

I'm not a lawyer, but I damn well should be,lol.

He legally cannot sell his shares until this lawsuite has been handled.

So technically your friend can sue for ownership of the nightclub.

[quote617e5a9b6d="ghondi"]I'm not a lawyer, but I damn well should be,lol.

He legally cannot sell his shares until this [b617e5a9b6d]lawsuite [/b617e5a9b6d]has been handled.[/quote617e5a9b6d]

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I think Allen is correct, and that you should visit more lawyers. They're getting paid for a reason, they should at least know what to do instead of sit there with their twirling their thumbs.

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