Judge: How attorney is paid remains a private matter

A Hartford Superior Court judge stands by his decision to not require criminal defense attorney Norm Pattis to turn over information on how he is being paid in the $2.5 million civil lawsuits against his client Fotis Dulos.

Attorney Richard Weinstein, representing Gloria Farber in the lawsuits, had asked the judge to reconsider his decision to deny his client access to information on how her soninlaw was paying for his defense team.

Pattis is representing

Fotis Dulos on criminal charges of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the May 24 disappearance of his estranged wife.

Jennifer Dulos vanished while she was embroiled in a contentious twoyear divorce and custody battle over the couple’s five children. Her mother filed the lawsuits in 2018 against Fotis Dulos and his company, Fore Group, for failing to repay business loans. Fotis Dulos, however, has claimed the money was a gift.

Weinstein has contended

Fotis Dulos transferred “substantial” sums of money to Greece from his real estate development company, and is now using it to pay Pattis and his defense team.

Superior Court Judge Cesar Noble, however, has denied Weinstein’s second attempt for information on how Pattis is being paid. Noble said the financial information was not likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence because it had little or no bearing on the lawsuits.

Noble’s ruling this week appears to end a backandforth between the attorneys and the judge that has lasted for more than a month related to legal fees Fotis Dulos is paying for his criminal, civil and foreclosure proceedings.

“The plaintiff (Farber) sought the information from attorney Pattis to try to determine if the funds being used to pay the multiple lawyers representing (Fotis) Dulos, with yet now

an additional lawyer in the foreclosure action, are funds of either or both of the defendants being funneled through a surrogate, or otherwise legitimate loans being advanced by third parties on behalf of defendant Dulos,” Weinstein wrote in a court filing in October.

Noble initially seemed to agree with Weinstein when he overruled a motion by attorney William Murray, representing Fotis Dulos in the lawsuits, arguing the information Farber was seeking from Pattis did not fall under attorneyclient privilege and could be released.

But Noble later denied Weinstein’s motion asking the judge to compel Pattis to attend a deposition and provide information on how he is being paid. Weinstein submitted a second request on Oct. 16, asking Noble to reconsider his decision to quash a subpoena requiring Pattis to be deposed.