Remember way back when, when a former Villa Blanca waitress sued Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd? The waitress in question accused her manager of sexual harassment, then said she was forced to quit after being subjected to a hostile work environment. Now it’s the attorney who represented Lisa and Ken who is on the receiving end of a lawsuit!
The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star filed a suit against attorney Marianne Zakarin alleging she poorly defended them by not exercising due diligence in their case with Karina Bustillos, the former waitress who was awarded a $1.6 million dollar judgement.
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Lisa and Ken had planned to appeal the judgement, (not sure if that’s still happening or did?), but regardless they are suing their former attorney!
Per TMZ Ken and Lisa believe they were the victims of malpractice at the hands of Ms. Zakarin’s representation and are seeking $1 million dollars in damages as a result of her mangling their case.
Lisa went on to make a little spinoff-y thing called Vanderpump Rules about her thriving restaurant business – which includes plenty of sexual (and harassing) storylines – but it appears Lisa and Ken are still miffed about having to pay out such a huge chunk in damages they don’t believe Karina was owed.
At the time of the judgement Lisa complained that the full story was not being told and fully defended the manager in question. The verdict was complicated: Although the jury found the manager, Michael Govia, not guilty, the judge decided to award Karina a settlement for “malice” due to Ken’s handling of her initial complaints. There was also an accusation that Ken destroyed surveillance evidence allegedly proving the manager’s behavior (that was never verified), and that Karina was owed wages for shifts she previously worked. It also emerged that Karina was a consistently problematic employee with a history of sketchy behavior.
Karina also attempted to settle for $40,000 if Lisa and Ken would publicly admit that Villa Blanca was unsanitary. Obviously they did not and they have not received any health complaints. Maybe this rather bizarre case can be featured on season 2 of Serial?
Last year Villa Blanca was also sued by a former pastry chef who complained about being called ugly by a supervisor, among other similar incidents, and said upper management did nothing to remedy the situation.
Since Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills appears to still be filming maybe we’ll see a snippet about Lisa’s legal situation on the new season.
TELL US – ARE LISA AND KEN THE VICTIMS OF MALPRACTICE OR JUST THE VICTIMS OF SOUR GRAPES?
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