This was a letter from our CPA, Colin Cody, which had been written
in a formal manner, notarized, presented as an affidavit,
and entered into the court case.

Dottie –

What you sent me is not proof of loss, it is not even a suggestion of a loss.  You should ask his for his computation supporting the alleged loss of net income (or is it loss of revenues?)  

If a loss of revenues, then there is an offsetting reduction in costs which need to be deducted to arrive at the alleged loss of net income (after income taxes). He needs to provide his support of the calculation. 

What you might want to have to verify his submitted support, once you get it, is ALL his family business and personal bank records and brokerage records for 3 years prior and up to the present time.  Also his Married Joint Federal Income tax returns from 3 years prior to the present. 

If there is a relationship with Houston ENT where Dr Nichols is an owner, then ditto for Houston ENT (they could have purposely, temporarily deferred payments to Nichols, or permanently diverted payments to someone else, such as his wife or children). 

You'd also want to know if he has other business relationships that need to be studied for diversion of his income. 

Nothing can be verified until you have his calculations, his support and the above documents to verify his support of his calculations.

I'd also like to see his (and Houston ENT) payroll tax returns forms 941 and W-2.   Let's see if his wages paid went down as the business died, OR by chance did number of employees increase??

If your web site caused customers to leave does he have proof?  or would this be a web site to scare away potential new customers?

 A cursory review of the papers you sent to me actually shows that his biggest month ever was August 2002 with $416K which was months after the Web site was started.  Depending on the quality of the attack of your web site (i.e. unsupported opinion?  parody?  or solid & factual) you might have a counter claim that this law suit has given him free publicity and that was his goal...  i.e. his claim is frivolous, his income ROSE since the publicity began.

Colin