More On Colt Cabana Suing CM Punk: Why Cabana Got His Own Lawyer, Feels Punk's Advice Led To Lawsuit

CM Punk and Colt Cabana escaped their defamation trial against Dr. Chris Amann on June 5th with a verdict in their favor. As we reported earlier, Cabana filed a lawsuit against Punk for over $1 million in legal fees and punitive damages because he claims that Punk persisted to press on in the legal process and defrauded him along the way.


The legal documents filed by Cabana's attorney on August 7th provides new details about the Amann lawsuit. It was said Cabana received an email with a letter from Dr. Amann "on or about December 14, 2014," demanding that he take down the podcast. Cabana notified Punk of this email through text messaging and the former WWE Champion said he would have his attorney at Loeb & Loeb "handle it."

After Cabana received a demand letter by mail on December 16th, Punk was notified again via text messages. Punk allegedly told Cabana to not respond and that he would be talking to his attorney, Sunny Brenner, to come up with a game plan." Punk told Cabana that "you're 100% covered." Cabana said that if he would have responded to the letter instead of listening to Punk, then he wouldn't have have had to incur the "costs, expenses or losses" associated with the case that he did.

After Amann filed his lawsuit on February 16th, 2015, Punk and Cabana retained Brenner as legal counsel for the case. Since Punk assured Cabana he was 100% covered, they signed an agreement saying they agree to "bill [Punk] for all of the legal services and expenses that we incur with respect to the Amann lawsuit" and "it is our understanding that Phil (Punk) will be responsible for paying these invoices."

Despite agreeing to pick up the cost of the trial's mounting legal fees, in late April 2016, Punk demanded via email that Cabana pay "for one or more of the Loeb Firm's statements."

"To date, I have spent $513,736 on this Amann lawsuit," Punk wrote. "My outstanding current bill is at least $300k. Half of all this is yours. Divide the 513,736 by 2 and that is what you owe me and what I expect you to pay me. Starting now I will no longer be paying your bills. You are on your own. Whatever my bill is currently, will be cut in half, and half will be yours. If you choose to make this ugly, that's fine too. I hope you won't but I gave up on you doing what is right a long time ago."

On May 5th, 2016, Cabana retained separate counsel from Punk. Brennen replied with an email on June 1st saying "he and [Punk] believed and agreed that it was best that [Cabana] not substitute counsel at that time."

In the email, Brennen wrote, "Despite your unwillingness to contribute to your legal fees, I am still prepared to represent you. [Punk] is prepared to have me represent you and cover your legal fees going forward, as long as there is no conflict between you and [Punk] that prevents me from fairly and ethically representing you. At his time, I don't believe that any such conflict exists."

Cabana agreed to keep Brennan as counsel and felt that there were no ethical issues that would prevent him from being represented by Punk's attorney. However, on March 10th, 2017, Cabana believes Punk "caused the Loeb Firm to withdraw as [Cabana's] counsel in the Amann lawsuit."

After being informed of losing his legal counsel, Cabana hired Carey Stein from the law firm Ashman & Stein to represent him in the Amann lawsuit. After the verdict was handed down in favor of Punk and Cabana, Stein demanded reimbursement of approximately $200,000 in legal fees from Punk incurred as a result of the lawsuit, which Punk refused.

Cabana is suing Punk for breach of contract and fraud. It is believed Punk breached his contract with Cabana concerning legal counsel. It was stated that Punk made promises to Cabana and he "deliberately failed or refused to inform [Cabana] that he had no intention of performing them."

The lawsuit claims, "Brooks acted with fraud, malice, and oppression toward Colton, with the deliberate intention of causing Colton harm."

Colt is asking for $200,000 in general damages, plus $1 million in punitive and exemplary damages, according to the lawsuit filing. Punk has not yet responded to the suit.