HOUSTON, Nov. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- There are growing calls from the public for Texas to hold lawyers, judges and arbitrators more accountable across the state, according to an investigation by Dolcefino Media.
A new installment of Dolcefino Media’s investigation Stuck With a Damn Lawyer raises more troubling concerns about Houston attorneys Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda, Michael A. Trevino, and arbitrator Anne Ashby as the series about predatory lawyers, judicial accountability and arbitration reform draws significant attention. The Dolcefino Damn Lawyers investigation exposes what is really happening in America’s courtrooms. It’s an 8-part series (with more coming) that all can be watched here.
Bogus Five Star Reviews
The public is also calling on regulators and review platforms to investigate predatory attorneys who post rigged, inflated reviews, according to StopLegalBullying.com, a public advocacy group focused on exposing legal abuse and fighting for reforms.
According to StopLegalBullying.com, glowing online reviews are posted without disclosing personal and professional relationships and connections to the legal firm or attorney, while authentic, critical client reviews quickly disappear from public view so these predatory lawyers can keep their fake five-star ratings.
Testimony at the Texas State Bar
On September 25th, 2026, at the Texas State Bar Annual Board meeting, where top board members of the Texas State Bar allow comment, one victim, Caroline Allison, shared that her family hired predatory attorneys Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda and Michael A. Trevino based on reviews that were inflated by manipulated Google and Yelp reviews. Video available here.
“Would you be shocked if you discovered a lawyer wrote a five-star review about himself? Would you be shocked if family members, spouses, children, or business associates helped inflate a lawyer's five-star ratings on Google, and that manufactured reputation was then used to market legal services to the public? That is where our story began and is what I contend was review fraud, deception, and a rigged public reputation,” said Caroline Allison before the Texas State Bar.
Another family, lured in by fake reviews, comes forward.
The latest installment of Wayne Dolcefino Media investigation, Stuck with a Damn Lawyer, features Texas resident Devon Kuhnel who says that his family relied heavily on the lawyers' five-star ratings, believing they were hiring the "best of the best."
According to the investigation, Kuhnel's grandmother, Billie, died in 2018 with millions of dollars in mineral rights and a will splitting her estate three ways. “She wrote a will splitting things in three ways. My uncle, my father, and me, I’m the grandson,” said Devon Kuhnel. Jorge Borunda and his law partner Adam Fomby were the lawyers hired for the estate and the executor, according to the investigation.
The will was challenged by her long-estranged husband, Devon’s 83-year-old grandfather Roy who is thought to be lacking mental faculties - and he hired Borunda’s buddy Michael A. Trevino, according to Dolcefino Media.
“He went into the office with intentions to retain him on an hourly fee basis, but my grandfather, he’s 83 years old, and he don’t really understand what’s going on too well, and all I know is he came out with a contingency deal,” said Devon Kuhnel.
And according to the investigation, it didn’t stop there. While Trevino is working on contingency, Devon Kuhnel says Borunda has been working on an hourly fee basis. The longer it goes, the more he makes. The estate work has gone on eight years now.
According to the Wayne Dolcefino Investigation into the matter, Borunda and opposing counsel Trevino are not in the same firm, but they share an office address, and Trevino previously worked at Borunda's firm. Kuhnel says the arrangement amounts to fee harvesting, with lawyers on both sides profiting the longer the case drags on.
“I think it's against the law from what they're doing,” Kuhnel said in Stuck with a Damn Lawyer.
The investigation also reports that State Bar records showed Borunda was ineligible to practice law in Texas for all of September 2026 over unpaid bar dues, yet he co-signed a court filing with Trevino on September 14th, 2026.
Devon Kuhnel has posted his complaints online regarding the predatory attorneys: Jorge Borunda, Adam Fomby and Michael A. Trevino, and wants these attorneys investigated.
The complaints raise questions about divided loyalties, contingency-fee arrangements, informed consent, and the accumulation of attorney fees during prolonged estate litigation, according to the investigation.
The Allison family also challenging their predatory lawyers.
The Allison family had the same difficulties with predatory lawyers Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda and Michael A. Trevino who they hired to handle issues around their late dad’s estate and they say, pushed them into expensive litigation despite the fact that their inheritance was already protected through a trust.
“What began as a request for help settling our father’s estate ultimately put millions of dollars of family assets at risk,” said Caroline Allison.
The Allison family says their former lawyers gave harmful legal advice, breached their fiduciary duties and then hid behind an arbitration clause that become a major barrier to independent public scrutiny of their egregious conduct.
This resulted in a multimillion-dollar arbitration award against the Allison family who says they have incurred enormous additional costs attempting to challenge the decision.
You can find Caroline Allison’s bar complaints for Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda and Michael A. Trevino here.
Public Demands for Accountability
On October 7th, 2027, in testimony at the Texas Supreme Court to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC), established by the Texas constitution to oversee the state's judiciary, Caroline Allison shared that her family has spent 1.5 million dollars fighting these corrupt attorneys and the decision of biased arbitrator Anne Ashby who handled their case against these predatory lawyers. After an investigation, the Allison family said they learned Ashby awarded damages 90% of the time with the side who brought her the arbitration business – the lawyers. Allison describes this as the arbitration fraud trap.
“Arbitration happens behind closed doors. There's generally no public courtroom, no public record, and very little ability to research an arbitrator's actual history,” said Allison.
Watch the video of Allison’s testimony here.
The Allison family, along with others, contend that Texas needs more transparency, oversight and accountability for lawyers, judges and arbitrators. They believe that an arbitration clause should never become an escape clause allowing attorneys to avoid meaningful accountability for bad legal advice, alleged malpractice, conflicts of interest, or breaches of fiduciary duty.
“What happens when misconduct by a lawyer or judge goes unchecked for years and causes irreversible damage to families before anyone acts, where is the accountability? Everyone in this room with a law license works in a system that holds the public accountable every day, so why can't the public hold the legal profession accountable?” Allison said.
Judge Cory Sepolio
In an October 23, 2026 hearing, the Allisons requested a Bill of Review before Harris County Judge Cory Sepolio, asking the court to throw out the arbitration award on grounds of fraud. The Allisons say Ashby failed to make several important disclosures that would have exposed conflicts of interest and warranted Ashby to recuse herself from taking on this case. But the judge denied a rehearing saying his hands were tied. Caroline Allison responded to the hearing here.
"Judge Cory Sepolio knows what happened to the Allison's is dead wrong. He chose not to help,” said Wayne Dolcefino of the 8 part investigative series, “Damn Lawyers.”
2027 Legislative Session – Fighting for Legal Protections and Arbitration Reform
StopLegalBullying.com and other advocates are fighting for lawyer, judicial and arbitrator accountability in the 2027 legislative session. They want legislators to protect consumers across probate and civil matters including.
Proposed Lawyer Accountability Reforms:
- Mandatory Malpractice Insurance Disclosure: Require attorneys to carry malpractice insurance or disclose in writing when uninsured.
- Informed Consent to Arbitration: Require a signed, one-page disclosure explaining arbitration risks, costs, and waived rights. Without the signed disclosure, the arbitration clause is automatically void.
- Attorney Fee and Settlement Transparency: Require written fee disclosures and a complete settlement statement within three days of signing. Failure to provide the statement automatically voids the settlement agreement.
- Public Lawyer Complaint System: Establish a public platform where consumers can publish complaints and reviews about lawyers, judges, and arbitrators, with legal protections against retaliation by attorneys for truthful, good-faith reporting.
Proposed Judicial Accountability Reforms:
- Require audio and video recording of courtroom proceedings: Rather than leaving recording to judicial discretion, secure recordings would accelerate transcripts, reduce costs and delays, preserve accuracy, prevent missing or disputed records, and provide litigants timely access to reliable evidence essential for meaningful appellate review.
Proposed Arbitration Reforms:
- Require full judicial review of arbitration awards to correct legal errors, fraud, and misconduct. Ending judicial deference to lawless awards.
- Impose financial liability on arbitrators who fail to disclose material conflicts.
- Require judges to refer suspected arbitrator fraud or intentional nondisclosure to financial crimes investigators.
- Establish an automatic right to initiate a bill of review when credible evidence of arbitration fraud emerges, ensuring that arbitration finality never shields unlawful conduct from accountability.
The Allison family says their experience raises a fundamental question about the fairness of arbitration: Why should an arbitrator be permitted to disregard established law while courts have only limited authority to review the resulting award?
Under current arbitration law, judicial review is generally narrow, according to the Allison family. Courts ordinarily cannot overturn an arbitration award simply because an arbitrator made serious factual or legal errors.
The Allisons argue that this deference can become particularly dangerous when an arbitrator allegedly exceeds their authority, disregards trust protections, fails to disclose material conflicts, or issues an award contrary to established law.
"An arbitration clause should never become an escape clause for fraud, fiduciary misconduct, or lawless rulings," said Caroline Allison
The proposed reforms would allow courts to examine whether arbitration awards comply with governing law rather than requiring courts to defer to potentially unlawful rulings solely because they originated in arbitration.
“The central principle is that arbitration should be an alternative forum for resolving disputes—not an exemption from the rule of law. An arbitrator should not have greater freedom to disregard governing law than a judge, particularly when an award threatens a family's inheritance, protected trusts, or financial security,” said Caroline Allison.
Texas State Senator Bob Hall
In the Dolcefino Media investigation "Stuck with a Damn Lawyer," Texas State Senator Bob Hall addressed the accountability of attorneys and judges within the state's judicial system
During a Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs hearing, Senator Hall stated:
"I would be very in favor of making it very difficult for an attorney to screw up and not be held accountable."
Public Complaint Platform
StopLegalBullying.com has launched a public platform where anyone can post their State Bar complaint and judicial conduct complaints they have filed.
According to StopLegalBullying.com, the new complaint platform gives the public an opportunity to share experiences, examines published complaints, and helps identify possible patterns of attorney misconduct. The organization says the goal is to expose the alleged schemes and scams of predatory lawyers, problem judges and biased arbitrators, and to warn other families before they get hurt.
“Unfortunately, the Texas State Bar has become a shield for lawyers, not a watchdog for the public," said Allison. “The State Bar of Texas received 7,964 grievances in 2024 and 2025, and only about 5% resulted in discipline. Dismissed complaints largely disappear from public view, so the next client has no way to see them. Families deserve to know which lawyers, judges and arbitrators people have raised concerns about before they sign anything.”
Media Resource Links and Supporting Documents
- The Dolcefino Media Stuck with a Damn Lawyer investigation
- State Bar of Texas Testimony – Caroline Allison
- Texas Supreme Court Hearing Testimony – Caroline Allison
- Caroline Allison bar complaints here for Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda and Michael A. Trevino and Anne Ashby.
- Devon Kuhnel bar complaints for Jorge Borunda, Adam Fomby and Michael A. Trevino
- Anne Ashby Judiciary Complaint (SCJC Complaint)
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