The Denver Postkobe bryant trial
Accuser's civil suit, lawyer move to fore
Thursday, September 02, 2004 -
When the criminal case against Kobe Bryant went away Wednesday, L. Lin Wood and his civil lawsuit moved into the spotlight.
Attorney Wood last month sued Bryant on behalf of the woman who claims the Los Angeles Lakers star raped her. In Eagle on Wednesday, Wood told reporters the civil case "would continue forward." His suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of "Jane Doe," seeks unspecified financial damages from Bryant. Under state law, damages for the personal injury lawsuit are capped at roughly $733,000. Wood, on a contingency fee, stands to earn a significant chunk of any settlement, traditionally 33 to 40 percent. Wood, 51, had a low-profile legal career before a comment on "60 Minutes" seven years ago rocketed him into national prominence. After graduating from law school at Mercer University in 1977, Wood spent nearly two decades working mostly medical malpractice cases in Atlanta. A bomb that exploded in a park during the 1996 Olympics started his rise. Richard Jewell, a security guard, was charged. Wood got Jewell acquitted. Riding that notoriety, Wood took his client on CBS's "60 Minutes." During the show, reporter Mike Wallace showed an NBC clip in which anchorman Tom Brokaw linked Jewell to the bombing. Wood said his client ought to sue for defamation. And a career in libel law was born. Wood negotiated a $500,000 settlement from NBC and undisclosed amounts from CNN and other other media outlets. He quickly became an expert on libel, and large settlements. He soon appeared on television again, this time with John and Patsy Ramsey, well-known at the time because of the unsolved 1996 murder of their child beauty-queen daughter, JonBenét. Representing the Ramseys, Wood successfully sued three supermarket tabloid newspapers, publications known not only for writing on the edge of libel laws but also for their deep pockets. The settlement amounts were sealed. Late last year, Wood filed another defamation suit, this one for $12 million, on behalf of the Ramseys against Fox News. Recently, Wood went to court for former California Congressman Gary Condit, who was linked to the 2001 death of his Washington aide, Chandra Levy. Wood sued Vanity Fair magazine for $11 million, and three tabloid newspapers for $209 million for linking the murder to Condit, who never was charged. The lawsuits are pending. Wood came to practice law through his own family's tragedy. As a 16-year-old, he returned home from school one day to find his father standing over his mother's body. His father was charged with the murder. Wood raised the money to hire a lawyer, who persuaded the father to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. It was then that Wood decided to enter the law. |