06-03-2025
Columbus lawyer who won $42 million verdict is now suspended by Georgia Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Georgia has suspended a Columbus lawyer.
Chris Breault, a Columbus lawyer who specializes in personal injury lawsuits, received a six-month suspension of his law license for what the court said are violations of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.
The violations involve events that happened in 2017, when he was brought on a case to act as lead counsel for a husband and wife, according to court documents.
The husband suffered two breaks in his back and a skull fracture after a tractor trailer struck his truck, which caused it to go over the side of a bridge and into the Savannah River, court documents say.
Court documents say Breault came to believe the clients needed to pursue a claim based on traumatic brain injury and learned the husband had been treated by a neurologist. Breault and a Georgia lawyer, identified as 'C.M.,' met with the physician, according to court documents.
Court documents say C.M. made an audio recording of the meeting unbeknownst to Breault or the physician.
'During this meeting, the physician described the Husband's purported brain injury as 'all kind of speculative' and made remarks casting doubt on the possible brain injury claim,' the court documents say.
Breault called the office manager on June 14, 2017, and canceled the deposition following this meeting, according to the documents.
Breault called and talk talked to the office manager June 20, 2017, regarding whether the physician would be able to testify at trial. The office manager told Breault the physician wouldn't be able to due to their workload, according to court documents.
Court documents say Breault responded in a threatening manner, stating the physician would have to do a deposition or he (Breault) would subpoena him for trial.
Court documents say the defendants in the lawsuit filed a motion the following day to revoke Breault's pro hac vice admission to the case because his actions violated the court's guidelines for courtroom conduct. Breault was previously given a pro hac vice admission, which allows for the addition of an attorney to a case where they are not licensed to practice, according to the Cornell Law School website.
The defendant's motion included an affidavit from the office manager detailing the conversation, court documents say. Breault responded to the motion without discussing it with the clients, according to court documents.
Court documents say Breault included a transcript of the audio recording taken by C.M. during the June 7, 2017, meeting with the physician.
Breault also obtained an audio recording of the meeting and sent it to all lawyers in the case and to the court, according to the documents.
'In his response to the defendant's motion to revoke, Breault admitted that the recording was 'attorney work product and includes many insights into how the Plaintiff[s] view every part of this case,' and that his actions 'tipp[ed] the 'playing field' in favor of the Defendants by disclosing this work product,' but that he 'fe[lt] the esteem and confidence of this Honorable Court are more important,' the documents say.
Court documents say Breault admitted at a disciplinary hearing that he made the disclosures public to make the defense counsel look like 'a disingenuous a**hole.'
The district court denied the defendant's motion but found the disclosure of the conversation was unnecessary and damaging to the clients' case, court documents say.
Breault was allowed to add a neuropsychologist to the client's witness list and was ordered to depose the neuropsychologist by the middle of August 2017, according to court documents.
Court documents say Breault told defense counsel that 10 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2017, would work for the neuropsychologist's deposition without having confirmed the date with the neuropsychologist.
The neuropsychologist informed the parties that he wouldn't be available that day, court documents say.
'Breault told defense counsel that he would ask the court for more time to schedule the deposition, but he never filed the request,' court documents say.
Breault was discharged by the clients Aug. 16, 2017, through a hand-delivered letter, according to court documents.
Court documents say the following day Breault went unannounced to the clients' home in South Carolina, called into question the competency of the clients' remaining counsel and told them they would lose out on funding for medical treatment if he were removed from the case.
The wife texted Breault after hisvisit, telling him she didn't want him to represent them, and Breault acknowledged the message and said he would file withdrawal paperwork the following day, according to court documents.
Court documents say Breault failed to file the withdrawal paperwork and instead advised the husband to seek legal advice from a litigation funding company and reached out to the wife, requesting she attend a focus group about the case.
The clients filed a motion to revoke Breault's pro hac vice admission, according to court documents.
Court documents say Breault filed a response 54 days after being discharged as counsel and again disclosed confidential information he gained while representing the clients.
Breault filed withdrawal paperwork following an Oct. 30, 2017, disciplinary hearing, according to court documents.
'The district court entered a Disciplinary Order, in which it found that Breault had violated several provisions of the GRPC (Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct) and that his disclosures of the Clients' protected information had been damaging to the Clients, and revoked Breault's pro hac vice admission,' the documents say.
Breault's suspension began Tuesday and will end after six months with 'no conditions on Breault's reinstatement other than the passage of time,' according to court documents.
The Ledger-Enquirer asked Breault for comment and received the following statement in an email:
''I have never once in my entire career been in trouble with the State Bar of Georgia. If you look at my record since I finished law school at the University of Georgia in 2012, twelve (12) years ago, I have zero Bar complaints or Bar discipline. It is odd that it is 2025, weeks after I get a $42 million jury verdict — the largest jury verdict in Georgia history in a motorcycle wreck — and I'm being said to have violated Bar rules from a case in 2017.
'I did excellent work for the client in that case they are talking about from 2017. Because of my work, the client became a millionaire. This all took place back in June of 2017, one month before trial. I was hired by the client's original lawyer to come and try the case in court as lead trial counsel. The client in the case was rear-ended by a tractor trailer and sent off a large bridge, falling nearly 200 feet. I came onto the case, proved he had a brain injury, and then the case settled for seven-figures and the client was happy. Because of my work, the client took home more than double what he was going to get before I was hired.
'I stand by my work in that case. I'm the first lawyer in Georgia history that they've ever accused of breaking these rules like this. I was part of a team of four (4) lawyers and I'm the only one they say violated a Bar rule. For years, they wanted me to take some slap-on-the-wrist penalty as long as I admitted I did something wrong. I refused, because I did nothing wrong. I'm sorry that in order to get outstanding results, you have to do things differently than your average Joe Schmoe lawyer out there. It means that you are creative and think outside the box. It doesn't mean you 'broke the rules.'
'After reading the Supreme Court's order on this matter, it's clear that whoever wrote it — sometimes it's a clerk or an assistant — does not have or understand all the facts. I plan to submit a motion for reconsideration to the court in ten (10) days to have them review it.
'As stated by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., 'the arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends towards Justice.' If you are willing to work and seize the opportunities that God provides, then God will take care of you. That has been my experience and I expect that to continue in the future.'
