Lawyer of the Day: Louis Brunoforte
When you’re hanging out at Chic-A-Boom Room in Dunedin, Florida, late on a Monday night, you need to be prepared for trouble. So discovered Florida patent attorney Louis Brunoforte this week. But only after taking a punch to the face from a feisty 45-year-old woman from Indiana.
From the St. Petersburg Times:
As he headed to the restroom early Tuesday at the Chic-A-Boom Room, Louis Brunoforte left behind a Budweiser to mark his spot at the bar.He returned to find someone sitting in his seat. A verbal dispute ensued and quickly escalated.
Words were exchanged, expletives were hurled and, finally, a punch was thrown, hitting the 6-foot, 240-pound Brunoforte right in the kisser.
Getting punched in the face, however, is not enough to warrant the honor of Lawyer of the Day. No, Brunoforte earned that honor by announcing to the Times that he plans to sue:
Brunoforte, 46, of Dunedin, is a lawyer and may proceed with a civil suit against Adams. He said he had back surgery in March and walks with the help of a cane and back brace. He wasn’t injured by the shot from the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Adams, but said that fact isn’t relevant.“I was a boxer in high school so I guess I know how to take a punch,” Brunoforte said. “But I could have fallen down, and with the serious back surgery I had that could have been problematic.”
Oh, Bruno, for the sake of your self-respect, you should have stopped talking after “take a punch.”
Brunoforte claims the Hoosier woman “threw a punch like a man would throw a punch.” But rather than hit her back, his cool head prevailed. He started planning his civil suit against her and asked the bartender to call authorities.
Dunedin lawyer says Indiana woman punched him after bar dispute [St. Petersburg Times]
(76) 
Comments
1st
First.
From looking at his picture, who doesn't want to punch him in the face?
wait, what the hell are his damages? Loss of manlihood?
Eat it 2.
- - 1
Face it: patent lawyers can kick your ass (if they want to). Or they can just go smoke herbst. (Eeek!)
Guys in my high school used to get punched in the face by 5 foot 8 inch girls all the time, it was no big deal.
What would have made this story even better is if she was drinking his beer when he got back.
I am seeing a potential new way for newly minted lawyers to earn a living. Use your lack of social charm to upset others into striking you and then sue for assault. Is this the type of change people wanted when they voted for Obama?
FU 8. Douche.
By the way this guy fights, I'd say he is a T14 product
This is RIDONKULOUS
what a pussy. both of them.
Wake up #9: BHO = TTT
what a tool! first, he gets into a heated argument (with a woman) over losing a seat at the bar. then, he admits to the media that he has no injuries/damages (even mentions he was a boxer) -- fact that may be relevant to his misplaced PI lawsuit/damages.
what a tool! first, he gets into a heated argument (with a woman) over losing a seat at the bar. then, he admits to the media that he has no injuries/damages (even mentions he was a boxer) -- fact that may be relevant to his misplaced PI lawsuit/damages.
You're supposed to pay another woman to kick her ass.
13 - Well, you better get to liking him, as it has been revealed that swine flu is actually a man-made bio-terror weapon that can mutate and combine with HIV, giving the president the impetus to declare martial law and suspend the constitution indeffinately.
Oh, and the Mayan calendar runs out in 2012, so this is clearly gonna happen.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/swine-flu-and-martial-law.html
http://www.ajeal.net/english/?p=534
http://endgamenow.com/police-state-martial-law/swine-flu-and-martial-law/
13 or should I say 8?
My remarks referred to the lame post/imitation, not its message.
-9
Am I the only one who remembers tort law?
The woman hit him. Their relative sizes and her status as a woman notwithstanding, he has a claim. We can’t have women/small people striking men/bigger people with impunity.
Am I the only one who remembers tort law?
The woman hit him. Their relative sizes and her status as a woman notwithstanding, he has a claim. We can’t have women/small people striking men/bigger people with impunity.
5'8" 180... thats a big bitch.
shoul.d have been a cock-punch!
Apparently the Bruised Booze Cruiser has gained some weight and moved to Florida.
P.E., you are indeed an emeritus and slipping. The proper cause of action would be battery.
Perhaps you should stick to refining your hybrid tough love package, and not the actual practice of law.
Budweiser? Good Lord. Anyone who drinks cheap American beer deserves to be punched in the face, especially someone who has money. I think I'll sue him for drinking Bud. I hurt my back once, so I think I'll win.
what are the damages? $100?
Meaning of Women's Rights:
"We want to be equal to men unless at some specific moment in time it is not convenient for us to be equal to men"
25, you're a Heineken drinker, aren't you?
19, even he prevails on his assault/battery claims, what are the damages?
nominal at best. no self-respecting PI lawyer would take this case.
8- you are a loser. choke on a fat one.
ABL- so, you think physical violence is not a big deal? fine, then. when I get home tonight I am punching my wife square in the kisser.
30 - a mop wearing a bra is no wife, sir.
i guess bruno isn't his forte
27, who said this had anything to do with women's rights? Just because it involves a woman? So, one woman is a jackass, therefore all feminists are hypocrites? Brilliant legal reasoning skills there, buddy...
30, yeah, punching your wife in the face sure will show ATL who's boss. *eye roll*
Having litigated against Tampa lawyers, this claim is par for the course.
31 - lol
A patent attorney who has been in practice for 14+ years and has a billable rate of $150...only in Florida.
Microlaw Partner to $65k!!
Perhaps Bruno should have used his client's invention (http://www.patents.com/Insulation-system/US20090050636/en-US/) to keep his beer cold while he was getting cold cocked!
215 - Sorry but Budwieser is not an American beer anymore!
Just wait until BHO gets through, GM and Chrysler won't be American either!
Bush may have shipped jobs overseas but Barry is about to make him look like a piker!
YES WE CAN!
That comment was directed at 25. Sorry, I can't count I went to public school and then to Yale.
-- 38
39 - I call BS Yale is a public school. Isn't it the New Haven campus of UCONN? I'm pretty sure it is.
- HLS
this guy is prolly a Harvard grad
Punching someone in the face is generally considered both criminal and tortious. So what's wrong with suing? If a 6'1" guy had punched a woman at a bar in the face but caused her no injury, would you be making fun of her?
30 here. Punched wife in the face. She's wicked pissed. But, "hey," I told her, "for the sake of your self-respect, shut the old pie whole." Eye-roll. You know, cause the whole point is that ABL is written by a moron. Hint: People who puch other people in the face deserve the worst of what they have coming to them.
42- dead on accurate. Anyone who punches someone is the face deserves to get ass cancer.
Hooray to Brunoforte for making this fat bar fly's life a little more difficult. Brunoforte. Hero. Good guy.
Maybe it's just me, but this Bruno dude seems like the kind of guy who would walk up to you and start being an asshole, you know, to fill the painful void in his heart where his self-respect used to reside. Maybe he set her off, like a crime of passion. Maybe he looked like he was going to hit her, so it was self-defense. Maybe she was doing the rest of us a favor and rearrange his face so we wouldn't have to see its offensive ugliness.
I agree with 21. What a heffer. Although Brunoforte also looks like he could use a few jumping jacks. She probably punched him after he pointed out that her ass was actually taking up 2 bar stools.
My boobies are hurtin :(
I"m sure he's from UPENN STATE. Only TTTs like that produce TTT grads like this douche-puppy.
5-foot-8, 180-pounds = fatty pig fatty
Spiro Agnew would have dropped kicked her ass back to the trailer park she came from
this guy is the definition of a man who has had his testicles put in a dark wood, probably cherry, box placed atop the the mantle of his fireplace. . . .he is the type of guy that what gives lawyers a bad name, what a douche
30/43...i have to ask: what is this "ABL" you keep referencing?
Wait, what was the Kirkland summer doing in Florida that gave her the opportunity to punch this guy?
He looks like he could play a good Dr Spock in the next Star Trek. That was a good movie -- you should see it.
You are missing the key to this situation. By placing the beer marking his spot, he is assured reason to believe that upon returning from the men's room in a reasonable time frame, the seat is still his. This is classic Promissory Estoppel, section 90 folks.
-Denny Crane
54,
I read through 54 comments worth of stupidity in the hopes that you would make an appearance. I began to lose hope around 46. I am teary-eyed right now. Thank you.
Glad I could help. Took the Gulfstream to New Orleans last night, ladies kept me away from this here computer for a while...needless to say its naptime here at CP&S
When did Mike Golic become a lawyer?
Was the little guy at the bar Greenie?
I'm sure he's irritating, and I hate seat saving, but throwing punches just to vent isn't acceptable. She deserves what she's got coming.
42 again. As for damages, I don't know the applicable state law, but generally the tort of battery involves a harmful OR offensive contact (e.g. slapping, spitting [non-diseased], etc. may cause no physical harm but still be "offensive" and therefore actionable). Pouring a beer on someone's head to pick another example may be battery depending on the jurisdiction as offensive contact even with no harm caused. Fondling someone without consent, whatever else it may be criminally or tortiously, is offensive contact and therefore battery (so kissing someone without consent is an example of offensive facial contact).
I had serious dental work done recently and so would be more likely to suffer harm (physical and economic) if hit in the face. So if someone punched me in the face, even if I suffered no physical harm, I'd find it more offensive than normal. This lawyer has other physical problems, I can totally understand that even if he didn't suffer physical harm the increased likelihood that he could have, makes the punch more offensive.
Most people I know, men or women, would find being hit in the face much more offensive than e.g. being punched in the shoulder or most (not all) other parts of the body -- I'm thinking now of a "Simpsons" episode in which Moe is attacked by an eagle in the face, cries "not the face" - it then starts striking his groin, he says "okay, the face" and then "wow, that actually feels kind of good after the groin" or words to that effect...
[59], what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having [read] it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Is that Mike Golic?
[59], what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having [read] it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
This guy is a fat cow. He deserved to be punched in the face. God, what a slovenly, fugly blimp.
28, I don't drink Heineken much, but it is at least better then Bud. I support local brewers (and growers for that matter). At least drink a Newcastle or something. Even a Killians. Good god, man.
And 38, Bud is an American invention. I'm talking about the liquid... I don't care who currently owns the brand. Geesh... lawyers. Drink piss before bud. You'll become a better person. Yours truly, 25
He can't be all that manly. He was in a bar called the "Chic-a-Boom Room." Sounds like he assumed the risk a chick would boom him. Case dismissed.
He obviously could not have obtained his name from his birth parents. And if he did, he should be forced to change it immediately, if not sooner.
He obviously could not have obtained his name from his birth parents. And if he did, he should be forced to change it immediately, if not sooner.
25 deserves to be punched in the face for being an elitist jackass who hasn't been laid in years.
42 again, ready to punch #60 and 62 in the face, which apparently that poster will not find objectionable, or more importantly actionable -- volenti non fit injuria...[grin]
Good lord, another Budweiser drinker. Bring it on 68. I may be 150lbs, but I can scrap. Plus you're probably drunk (like most who drink Budpisser).
- 25
"Lawyers" here should know better. Physical assault is not a laughing matter no matter who perpetrates it, and female-on-male physical assault & abuse is one of the most under-reported and overlooked stories in our society. No one believes it can happen, or should be taken seriously, but it does happen; many women in fact do it supremely in the belief that they can get away with it (e.g., that no one will believe the man or take him seriously). Get a grip, folks.
"Lawyers" here should know better. Physical assault is not a laughing matter no matter who perpetrates it, and female-on-male physical assault & abuse is one of the most under-reported and overlooked stories in our society. No one believes it can happen, or should be taken seriously, but it does happen; many women in fact do it supremely in the belief that they can get away with it (e.g., that no one will believe the man or take him seriously). Get a grip, folks.
"Lawyers" here should know better. Physical assault is not a laughing matter no matter who perpetrates it, and female-on-male physical assault & abuse is one of the most under-reported and overlooked stories in our society. No one believes it can happen, or should be taken seriously, but it does happen; many women in fact do it supremely in the belief that they can get away with it (e.g., that no one will believe the man or take him seriously). Get a grip, folks.
Practice pointers:
1. It is rarely prudent for male attorneys to confront others regarding bar seating arrangements while drinking at a lesbian bar.
2. It might be best to for counsel to avoid announcing to the local press that he was even drinking at an establishment with a name like the Chic-A-Boom Room.
3. Never pick a bar fight with a 180 pound Hoosier female. You can’t win. If you know her out, you are a misogynist abuser. If you get knocked out, you just got your asked kicked by a woman. Either way, it’s not good.
4. Never sue a woman arising out of a bar fight. You can’t win.
Partner Emeritus needs to get a refresher course in torts. Being struck is not necessary to allege assault, however it is for battery.
Congratulations on winning the lawyer of the award