The celebrity lawyer has fallen on her face again, betrayed by one of her own unethical pay-for-testimony “experts”
Power lawyer Lisa Bloom has been ordered to pay photographer Bruce Weber over $28,000 in legal costs. In the case of Jason Boyce v. Bruce Weber, a federal judge ordered Bloom to make the payment to Weber’s attorneys after one of he “expert” witnesses, a clinical neuropsychologist, refused to answer certain questions at deposition. Insiders with knowledge of Lisa Bloom and The Bloom Firm say the likely cause of the expert’s stonewalling was that the answers to the questions would have revealed knowledge the Boyce was faking his claims, or had been directed by Bloom to lie and fabricate evidence as she has been known to do.
The tactics Bloom deploys by using paid experts are well known. Pulling from a routine pool of hacks who use pumped up credentials to get paid gigs, Bloom seeks to dazzle juries. But the game depends on the expert’s shaky ethics, and being limited in the knowledge of the case they are testifying about. In Elizabeth Taylor v. Alki David, for instance, Dr. Meisha Sherman of Simi Valley, CA a so-called HR expert was paid between $18,000 and $40,000 to come testify before a jury. Under cross examination it was revealed the expert’s review of the case consisted entirely of reading the original complaint. (The ethics of paid experts in jury trials used by Lisa Bloom have been widely criticized such as in this essay called “Testimony for Sale” in the Pepperdine Law Journal.)
Bruce Weber denies the allegations of Boyce and other ex-models of his. “I want to address the recent allegations made against me,” Weber said via his personal Instagram account. “I unequivocally deny these charges and will vigorously defend myself. I have spent my career capturing the human spirit through photographs and am confident that, in due time, the truth will prevail. I am grateful for the outpouring of support I have received.”
It’s been a very bad year for Bloom, still reeling from her humiliating hung jury in the Elizabeth Taylor trial in which the defendant, Alki David, a non-lawyer, defended himself—possibly even while under the influence of marijuana. Bloom is still struggling to recover from her association with convicted serial rapist Harvey Weinstein and her attempts to block Ronan Farrow’s story that became Catch and Kill. She also has seen cases against Tony Cardenas and Usher fall apart because of her own unethical behavior. Meanwhile, her mother Gloria Allred is believed to be under investigation by the California State Bar over further breaches of legal duty in a related case against Alki David.