OJ Simpson’s Lawyer Needs to be Replaced

[Source: News Nation]

Celebrity lawyer Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in CA, discusses why OJ Simpson‘s lawyer needs to be replaced on News Nation.

OJ Simpson’s $33 Million Judgement

Dan Abrams : OJ Simpson still owes a lot of money to the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown. After all, he was found liable and has the $33-plus million judgment for killing them. With interest, it’s now blown into well over 100 million. That’s what makes comments by the executor of Simpson’s estate and his longtime lawyer, Malcolm Lavergne, seemingly stunning. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing, them specifically, and I’ll do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.”

Malcolm Lavergne Trolls The Goldmans

But here’s the thing. It actually isn’t all that stunning that he made these comments. He’s seemingly made it his mission to troll a victim’s family. For many, he is a new face as the executor. But the reality is that for years he’s been insulting the Goldman family with arguably antisemitic public comments. So we will ask, could this guy get removed? In 2017, he tweeted, “Money, money, money, money. I’ve heard the greedy Goldmans talk about money 1,000 times since they came on my radar screen in July, but only heard them mention that poor dead kid, Ron, a few times. Go figure.”

Which is of course absurd considering how often the Goldman family has talked about Ron. Going on to say that Goldmans are professional public figure victims. I called him out at the time for his comments on Twitter. Lavergne pushed back and attacked me. I’m not the story though. Lavergne has even called Ron’s father Freddie, plantation master, which led to his sister Kim jumping in to accuse him of lying, “You’re a special kind of something to be that insensitive. Stop including me in these disgusting tweets,” she said. And of course Lavergne responded to Kim referring to her as “wacky Kim.” So it was hardly surprising when Lavergne said this on Cuomo Friday night.

Malcolm Lavergne: The one you’re talking about as celebrity judgments. Those are unsecured judgments, but the real issues will be Mr. Simpson did have IRS debts. There will be funeral expenses. There will be all those things and they take superiority over any other type of debt like the celebrity debts that you talked about.

Geraldo Rivera: You counsel, put the heavy celebrity debt on it as if it was not a righteous obligation of the estate you now represent.

Malcolm Lavergne: I think there’s a little too much emotion going on. Let’s get on to the next questions.

My question is, should a guy like Lavergne be handling this at all, and could he be removed as the executor of the estate?

Joining me now, Chris Melcher, a California top family law attorney who works with a lot of notable celebrities and high-net-worth clients. It’s pretty tough to get rid of an executor. Could they try and do it?

OJ’s Lawyer Can Be Replaced

“Well, absolutely, Dan. When I read the comments by this attorney, it was clear that he has no clue what his obligations are as an executor or personal representative. By law, he is supposed to marshal the estate, meaning figure out if OJ has any money, and creditors get paid first before heirs. That’s his job, is to dispassionately make sure that the creditors are paid what’s due to them, and the heirs get whatever is left over. And for him to come out and say that his mission in life was now to make sure that these creditors under a valid judgment resulting from a jury trial against OJ, will not get a dime, showed to me that he has no obligations, no understanding, I’m sorry, what his obligations are. And he absolutely should be removed, even though he has now realized the foolishness of those comments,” stated the celebrity divorce lawyer Christopher C. Melcher of Walzer Melcher Yoda LLP, which is ranked as a best family law firm in California.

Dan Abrams : But as a legal matter, it’s tough right to get an executor removed? The theory being that the person who has died picks an executor or the person who’s allowed to choose who they want. How would they go about doing it?

How to Replace OJ’s Lawyer

“They would go to the Nevada probate court because OJ died in Nevada. So that’ll be the court that’ll administrate his estate. And we need somebody in there who’s neutral and who’s honest and is going to do their job. And this gentleman is certainly not any of those things according to his own statements, that he is not going to follow the law. And so it should be fairly easy, I think in this particular instance to have him removed. Even though he was chosen by OJ, he is clearly not going to ensure that the Goldmans who are legitimate creditors, get any money. So we need somebody in there who’s going to be fair, honest, and neutral, and this gentleman is not able to do so,” stated Christopher C. Melcher, a high-net-worth divorce attorney and celebrity legal analyst.