City stopped paying Carollo’s legal fees in lawsuit. Now, he’s without a lawyer
The legal team representing Joe Carollo in a lawsuit an insurance company filed against the city of Miami has quit representing the former District 3 city commissioner after the city stopped footing the bill for his lawyers.
In a motion filed on behalf of himself and three other lawyers with the Coral Gables-based law firm Rivero Mestre, LLP, attorney Jorge A. Mestre said Carollo “has failed to substantially fulfill an obligation to the Firm.” A judge granted the attorneys’ request to withdraw from the case.
The change leaves Carollo without representation in a lawsuit filed nearly two years ago by QBE Specialty Insurance Company, which seeks to recoup millions in legal fees it spent defending Carollo in lawsuits filed since 2018. The case was slated to go to trial this month, but the judge paused it for 30 days while Carollo finds a new lawyer.
Reached by phone this week, Carollo said he has not yet retained new counsel and that the city did not inform him in advance that he would be losing his representation.
The legal team’s withdrawal from the case marks the latest update in the tangled knot of litigation that has ensnared the city and Carollo for years, stemming from the same general allegations levied by Little Havana businessmen Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla. The pair won a $63.5 million judgment against Carollo in 2023 after a jury found Carollo had weaponized city resources against them and their businesses in retaliation for Fuller and Pinilla supporting Carollo’s opponent in the 2017 election.
In 2024, QBE sued the city, Carollo and various city employees, as well as Fuller and Pinilla. The insurer for the city argued that it is not responsible for covering legal expenses racked up across multiple lawsuits filed by Fuller and Pinilla related to Carollo’s conduct, pointing in part to a declaration from the Florida Supreme Court that “one should not be able to insure against one’s own intentional misconduct.”
QBE said that “Carollo — through his own actions and by conscripting others to do his bidding — engaged in a years-long campaign of retaliation and harassment with the conscious objective of inflicting harm on” Fuller and Pinilla and their businesses.
City Attorney George Wysong told the Miami Herald last week that, while the city had previously been covering Carollo’s legal fees in the QBE lawsuit, it stopped doing so after the U.S. Supreme Court in March rejected Carollo’s appeal in the initial case that resulted in the $63.5 million verdict in 2023. Because there are a number of related cases, that lawsuit — filed by Fuller and Pinilla in 2018 — is referred to in court filings as “Fuller I.”
Wysong said the city is still covering Carollo’s legal fees in a different lawsuit brought by former Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo.
Meanwhile, the city recently agreed to sue Carollo over the legal fees it spent defending him in the Fuller I lawsuit, though city officials acknowledged that the move is largely symbolic.
Fuller and Pinilla have yet to collect on the $63.5 million judgment they won, with the courts ruling that Carollo’s Coconut Grove home and his wages are shielded from seizure. Wysong told commissioners that even if a judge were to agree that Carollo owes the city for legal fees, it would still be behind Fuller and Pinilla in line in terms of collecting funds from Carollo.
With Carollo reporting a negative $62.8 million net worth in his latest financial disclosure, Fuller and Pinilla have pursued payouts from other sources with deeper pockets.
In early 2024, the pair sued QBE, seeking $18.6 million, “plus post-judgment interest and post-judgment attorneys’ fees.” Their arguments are now moving forward as counterclaims under the umbrella of the QBE lawsuit.
Possible settlement ahead
The QBE lawsuit was slated to go to trial on April 20, but the matter was complicated when Carollo’s attorneys withdrew. Recent court documents indicate that a settlement could be on the horizon.
Last week, QBE asked the judge to order a “global settlement conference” before a U.S. magistrate judge, saying that “past mediations with private mediators have been unsuccessful and have not resulted in settlement.”
QBE asked that the confidential settlement conference be held before June 1, ahead of the anticipated fall 2026 trial in another Carollo-related lawsuit known as “Fuller II.” Those allegations closely parallel the case that resulted in the $63.5 million judgment, with Fuller and Pinilla alleging that Carollo mobilized a “government machine” against them and a slew of their businesses as a form of political retaliation. The city is the only remaining defendant in that case.
READ MORE: Judge recuses himself from final Joe Carollo-related lawsuit at explosive hearing
Attorney Jeff Gutchess, who represents Fuller and Pinilla, told the Herald this week that he sent the city a settlement offer in the Fuller II lawsuit several weeks ago, but the city never responded. He described it as a “complete and utter silence” from the city’s lawyers.
“They’re not talking to us,” Gutchess said.
The city declined to comment for this story.
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