Vince Neil Loses Legal Fight With His Lawyers
Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was ordered to pay his former lawyers $170,000 after a disagreement over legal fees.
The Blast reports that a Las Vegas judge has found against Neil after Howard & Howard filed a lawsuit claiming he owed them $187,364.01. The action was a result of the attorneys’ work on a legal case stemming from an alleged assault in 2016.
Neil claimed that he’d been charged too much for their services because of who he was. In his filing he said that "many of the charges in Howard & Howard’s billing are questionable at best.” He cited a charge of $1,784.50 for a letter that took a little more than four hours to write and argued that the pricing had been “based upon his status as a celebrity.” He added that he “maintains a celebrity status as a successful rock 'n' roll entertainer.”
Howard & Howard claimed it continued working on Neil’s civil suit, even though he had stopped paying his bills, until the total reached nearly $190,000. Finding in the firm's favor, the Federal judge ordered Neil to pay $148,962.50 for unpaid fees and an additional $21,207.06 in court costs, totaling $170,169.56.
The legal action in question resulted from an incident in April 2016, when Neil was alleged to have pulled a fan by the hair after she approached him. Actor Nicolas Cage was also involved in the tussle, apparently trying to calm Neil down and telling him to “stop this shit now.”
Neil was later fined $1,000 and spent six months on probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery.