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Dikeman v. Mary A. Stearns PC

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to compel plaintiff to comply with defendant's overbroad and oppressive discovery request which invaded the privacy expectations of plaintiff's other clients.

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A law firm sued a client to collect unpaid legal invoices. Claiming the firm’s invoices were inflated, the client refused to pay and asserted a RICO counterclaim on the ground that two predicate acts of overbilling through the mail existed. The court i refused to compel the firm to produce documents reflecting its billings to other clients, ii entered summary judgment in favor of the firm on the RICO counterclaim, and iii ordered the parties to mediate. Inasmuch as that the client’s challenges to these three orders are meritless, we affirm.

Sidney Dikeman paid only a portion of the legal invoices of Mary A. Stearns, P. C., the firm that represented Dikeman in a divorce action. When Stearns sued to recover the outstanding fees, Dikeman contended that the invoices were inflated and counterclaimed under federal and Georgia RICO law that Stearns had committed acts of mail fraud by sending inflated invoices through the mail to her and others.

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