CLEARWATER — A client is suing Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A., a law firm, Aubrey Omar Discus Jr., individually, and Rachel L. Drude, individually, attorneys, citing alleged legal malpractice.
Mark Mancuso filed a complaint Dec. 3 in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County against the defendants, alleging that they providing ex parte services for his wife, who has petitioned for a divorce, at the expense of Mancuso’s legal interests.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that in July 2014, Mancuso retained the defendants to provide services for him providing that Mancuso Trust assets would be transferred to him as the primary beneficiary if his wife, Donna, died or if either Donna or Mark Mancuso filed for divorce prior to the loan being paid off. Unbeknownst to him, on Sept. 5, 2014, defendants provided services to Donna, transferring the Mancuso Trust assets from the Mancuso Trust to her individually, and then on Sept. 6, 2014, transferring those same assets into a different trust, the McMullen Trust of 2011, of which Donna Mancuso was the trustee and sole beneficiary.
The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible because they allegedly owed Mancuso a duty of reasonable care and representation as a lawyer/ law firm that included properly protecting his rights and interests in the Mancuso Trust assets, and to inform him of any conflicts of interests that may have existed while they represented him.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and judgment against the defendants as well as attorney’s fees and costs and any other relief the court deems appropriate. He is represented by Joseph E. Parrish of Parrish & Goodman PLLC in Tampa
Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County Case number 18-007856-CI