William R. "Bill" Edwards Sr. is partner in the Edwards Law Firm in Corpus Christi. Photo: Reba Graham.

A yearslong plaintiffs lawyer tiff worthy of a soap opera has ended with Corpus Christi litigator William R. "Bill" Edwards Sr. winning $255,000 in sanctions against two attorneys who brought frivolous claims to "vex and harass" him, according to a Sept. 20 final arbitration award.

Edwards and former associate Jo Emma Arechiga won the sanctions in a binding-arbitration proceeding against personal injury attorneys Stephen Carrigan and Keith Gould and 11 of their clients, who sued the Edwards Law Firm parties in 2013.

"Here the attorney-respondents signed pleadings that were false and groundless," noted the award by arbitrator Alice Oliver-Parrott, former chief justice of Houston's First Court of Appeals. "Considering the history of the parties, the pursuit of grievances that the client-respondents testified they did not know they had filed, and an almost nonexistent attempt to discover the facts after the suit was filed, the arbitrator finds that the groundless pleadings were brought for the purposes of harassment."

It cost $355,242 for the Edwards parties to defend themselves against the lawsuit, and another $24,350 to bring the motion for sanctions, according to the arbitration award.

Edwards and Arechiga filed a motion for sanctions in a Nueces County District Court, which referred it to arbitration. Next, they will ask the court to approve the arbitration award against Carrigan of Carrigan & Anderson in Corpus Christi and Gould of The Gould Law Firm.

Arbitrator Oliver-Parrott wrote that Carrigan and Gould should be sanctioned with a substantial part of the Edwards' parties out-of-pocket expenses, to hold them accountable for their conduct. The award holds Carrigan and Gould jointly and severally liable for paying $115,000 to Edwards, $115,000 to his firm, and $25,000 to Arechiga.

Edwards said the award vindicates his reputation.

"This shows if you stand up to people who are filing those sorts of things, that you can win. This award ought to dissuade these folks from doing any more filing of frivolous lawsuits," said Edwards, who over the years has lobbied the Texas Legislature for tougher laws against barratry, or the illegal solicitation of legal clients. "I was just doing my job for my clients, and I didn't make a feud, but they were very unhappy campers. They apparently chose to see if they could do some harm."

Corpus Christi solo practitioner Mitchell Clark, who represented Arechiga, said that the arbitration award clears her name.

"I'll let the award speak for itself," Clark said. "The award is crystal clear."

Carrigan and Gould each didn't return a call seeking comment before deadline. Neither did their attorney, Corpus Christi solo practitioner John S. Flint.

Murder plot

The parties' history began in 2012, when Edwards represented a woman, Maryann Uribe, who brought a barratry suit against Gould and his former law partner, Paul D. Andrews, another attorney-litigant.

Uribe was Gould and Andrews' former employee, and alleged they had promised her a percentage of attorney fees for any case she brought to the firm.

Then in 2013, Carrigan, Gould and Andrews hit back by serving as co-counsel in two lawsuits that alleged it was the Edwards parties who had committed barratry by paying a case runner to solicit clients unlawfully. Edwards denied the allegations and claimed that those cases were filed as "retribution" for his representation of Uribe against Andrews and Gould.

One of the cases, Avalos v. Edwards, involved plaintiff and alleged case runner Joe Avalos, who was indicted for perjury in 2015 for allegedly lying in a deposition about a central fact in his lawsuit.

The other lawsuit, Chavez v. Edwards, was brought by a group of supposed clients who claimed the Edwards parties improperly solicited them. The case was mostly wiped out on summary judgment in 2014, but provided fodder for the sanctions motion.

Also in 2014, a twist: Both Andrews and Gould were indicted for felony barratry in San Antonio based on a criminal complaint by Uribe. Those charges were eventually dismissed.

And then another: Andrews was arrested for solicitation of capital murder for asking one of his law firm clients to murder Uribe. He was formally indicted of that crime in early 2015. He pleaded no contest in 2016 and he's currently serving his 10-year sentence in the Texas prison system.

Andrews in late 2014 resigned his law license in lieu of discipline, based on Uribe's barratry allegations.

Carrigan and Gould also have disciplinary histories with the State Bar of Texas.

 

The last chapter

The remaining issue in the long-running litigation was a motion for sanctions that the Edwards parties filed against the attorneys in the Chavez case. Originally against all three lawyers, Edwards and Arechiga dropped Andrews after he entered prison, noted Edwards.

The Edwards parties alleged in the sanctions motion that Carrigan and Gould brought the lawsuit with no basis in law or fact, without adequately investigating the clients' claims, solely to harass the Edwards parties. But Carrigan and Gould countered that they had brought the case in good faith, and had conducted a reasonable investigation.

The arbitrator wrote that Carrigan and Gould caused unnecessary delay with their motions, failed to answer discovery or appear for depositions in a timely manner, and more.

"There is good cause to sanction them," the award said.

However, Carrigan and Gould's clients don't share the blame. The arbitrator found the clients had little understanding of their claims, and they had relied on Carrigan and Gould to advise them.

"Although there was wrongful conduct done in the name of client-respondents, they were not the 'true offenders,'" the arbitrator found.

Corpus Christi solo practitioner Larry Adams, who represented the clients, said they are happy the ordeal is over and that the arbitrator did not sanction them. He said it was the clients who were the victims—of both sets of attorneys.

"They took the position, and kept the position, that the Edwards firm mislead them from day one in being signed up as a client, and then being rejected as clients," Adams said. "I think Carrigan and Gould probably made promises to them that they should have known they couldn't keep. You've got the element—from the outside, looking in—that this is about greed. My folks are asking me, 'Mr Adams, why are these lawyers suing each other for money, for cases in which we got nothing?'"

Read the arbitration award: