Defendants in suit over herbal supplements re-file legal malpractice claim against Sdrenka & Probst

A Chicago law firm and its two name partners are facing a lawsuit over claims they agreed to a $2.5 million settlement in a case over herbal diet supplements without their clients' consent or authority.

Life Rising Corp., Ton Shen Health Inc., Nature's Health Corp. and Zhengang Guo filed suit May 27 in Cook County Circuit Court against Yvonne Probst, Eric Sdrenka and their firm, Sdrenka & Probst.

According to the complaint, Sdrenka & Probst began representing the plaintiffs in 2009 in a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she became ill after ingesting the plaintiffs' products. That suit was amended following the woman's death to name a special administrator as the plaintiff.

The plaintiffs in the recently-filed complaint sued the defendants in November 2011 and are now refiling the suit following its January 2013 voluntarily dismissal.

The defendant law firm and lawyers, the suit states, were replaced as the plaintiffs' counsel by Ungaretti & Harris LLP in August 2011. Life Rising Corp. and the other plaintiffs claim the defendants made untrue claims, failed to respond to motions, didn't comply with court orders and failed to inform them of various aspects of the case.

The plaintiffs further assert that they didn't learn of the alleged legal malpractice, as well as a $2.5 million settlement the defendants apparently agreed to on their behalf in the underlying litigation, until they retained new counsel.

The suit includes counts alleging legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.

The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of damages, attorney's fees and costs. They are represented by attorneys at Brustin & Lundblad Ltd.

Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2014L005633.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt and it only represents one side of the story.