Nearly three years after an injured oil platform worker hired Houston plaintiffs firm Gordon, Elias & Seely to sue on his behalf, his lawyer contacted him with “very, very bad news” about his case and encouraged him to get legal advice about suing the firm for malpractice.

That’s exactly what Glenn Price did on March 14, when he filed a negligence lawsuit in the 127th District Court in Harris County, Texas, seeking more than $1 million in actual and exemplary damages from the firm and two of its partners: Jeff Seely and R. Todd Elias.