Rock singer Courtney Love is suing her former attorney, for a fairly unusual reason. Many times, attorneys are sued for legal malpractice for failing to exercise their duty of care in a client’s case. But in this case, Love says that the attorney drove a wedge between herself and her daughter by sending her a bizarre letter discussing a conspiracy against the daughter and making inappropriate comments.
The letter is dated April 2009. A copy of the letter was submitted along with the complaint. It is written on stationary from the attorney’s law firm and apparently signed by the defendant, but the attorney falsely claims to be representing Love’s daughter.
Besides flattering the daughter about her musical ability and urging her to stay in school, the letter refers to “evil and vile animals” conducting a “very large and very scary conspiracy” that “caused your life to fall apart” when the daughter was 11, based supposedly on stories related to the lawyer by Love.
The letter also refers to the attorney’s personal life, discussing her going through miscarriages and her husband’s and brother’s suicides.
According to the lawsuit, the letter convinced Love’s daughter and the managers of the estate of her late husband, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, that Love had hired an incompetent attorney to represent her daughter. By December 2009, the daughter had obtained a restraining order against Love. The Cobain trust later took away control of the singer’s publishing and publicity rights from Love.
Readers may be aware that Love has engaged in erratic behavior in the past. But if this letter is genuine, it would likely represent a major breach of the attorney-client relationship, and be a sign of an attorney who was not competent to practice, at least at that time.
Source: Courthouse News Service, “Courtney Love Blames Lawyer for Daughter Rift,” Matt Reynolds, Oct. 29, 2013