Retired 7th Circuit judge Posner sued for wages at short-lived pro bono center - Reuters

Federal Judge Richard Posner in his Chambers in Chicago July 2, 2012. REUTERS/John Gress

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Summary
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Lawsuit claims retired Judge Richard Posner owes $170,000 to Indiana man
Lawsuit stems from work with Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se's

(Reuters) - Richard Posner, a retired judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is being sued by an Indiana man who says he is owed $170,000 for serving as the co-executive director of the prominent jurist's short-lived assistance project for pro se litigants.

Brian Vukadinovich, who after successfully representing himself without a lawyer in a lawsuit was recruited by Posner to help run his Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se's, filed the lawsuit on Thursday in federal court in Hammond, Indiana.

The lawsuit marked an escalation in an ongoing dispute over unpaid wages involving Vukadinovich, who served as co-executive director of the center, which Posner founded in 2018 with the mission of aiding litigants representing themselves.

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The center dissolved in July 2019.

Robert Kaufman, Posner's lawyer at Fischel Kahn, in an email said the "case has no merit." He previously told Vukadinovich in a February letter that Posner had a confirmed Alzheimer's diagnosis and had no legal capacity to enter into any agreement to pay Vukadinovich.

Posner, a frequently cited legal scholar who was appointed to the appeals court in 1981 by former Republican President Ronald Reagan, abruptly announced his retirement from the bench in September 2017 at age 78.

At the time, he told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin he had "difficulty" with how judges treated pro se litigants. He founded the center in mid-2018.

Vukadinovich, a former high school shop teacher, has said he came to know the judge by successfully taking his employer to trial for firing him and winning a $204,000 verdict.

In Thursday's lawsuit, Vukadinovich said the judge offered him a job with the center he was founding in February 2018 promising to pay him at least $80,000 a year. A month later, Posner agreed to up the payment to $120,000, the lawsuit said.

Vukadinovich said Posner told him $120,000 would be paid as a lump sum after a year of service and that the money would be the judge's responsibility regardless of the financial condition of the Posner Center itself.

But Vukadinovich, who is pursuing the lawsuit pro se, alleged Posner breached their contract and failed to pay him for services rendered through July 2019, and that he was owed $170,000.

Vukadinovich in a statement said he and Posner had been "good friends" and that he was disappointed the judge's family's lawyer and other attorneys "decide to team up to 'forcefully' resist my efforts to receive my entitled compensation."

The vase is Vukadinovich v. Posner, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana, No. 22-cv-00118.

For Vukadinovich: Brian Vukadinovich

For Posner: Robert Kaufman of Fischel Kahn

After Posner retired from 7th Circuit, a grim diagnosis and a brewing battle