Jay-Z Isn’t the Only One Taking Aim at Attorney Tony Buzbee
Recently, attorney Tony Buzbee has come under fire from not just Jay-Z, but also from a former client who claims that Buzbee’s actions were more akin to those of a loan shark than a lawyer in a personal injury case.
Following Jay-Z’s scathing criticism of Buzbee, Matthew Ray Thompson Jr. has filed a federal lawsuit against his former attorney. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Thompson alleges that he was injured in July 2023 while working as a deckhand on a vessel that collided with a barge in the Houston Ship Channel.
Thompson goes on to claim that he hired Buzbee to represent him, and a lawsuit was filed on his behalf in November 2023. This led to automatic payments being made to Thompson from his employer while the lawsuit was ongoing.
However, Thompson alleges that these payments were sent directly to Buzbee’s firm, who then provided Thompson with disbursements, but with a significant catch. Thompson claims that Buzbee lent him his own funds and charged him a high interest rate. Furthermore, Thompson alleges that Buzbee withheld over 60% of the money owed to him and that this practice is not uncommon with other clients of Buzbee.
While Thompson does not mention Jay-Z or Diddy by name, he does draw parallels between his experience and the claims made by Jay-Z in his recent statement. Thompson states, “Buzbee has become rich by milking settlements with threats of negative attention from people who rely on their public reputations for livelihood.”
Attempts to reach out to Buzbee for comment have been unsuccessful thus far.