Ex-Lawyers Go After Anna Nicole

With all this shuffling back and forth between the U.S. and the Bahamas, perhaps Anna Nicole Smith's checkbook got lost somewhere in transit.

The Nassau-based law firm Callenders & Co. is claiming that the TrimSpa pusher has failed to pay $113,000 in fees for various services rendered and has moved to have her local assets frozen at $125,000 until the outstanding bill is settled.

Callenders attorney Tracy Ferguson alleged in an affidavit filed along with the lawsuit Dec. 6 that Smith "has a total aversion to paying her bills and that she will seek to avoid paying the fees by any means that occur to her, including by sending her money within this jurisdiction abroad."

Ferguson's colleague Michael Scott dropped Smith as a client back in October, citing a disagreement he had with a certain "commercial transaction" she made, namely the choice to sell photos of her commitment ceremony to People in the midst of making funeral arrangements for her recently deceased 20-year-old son, Daniel.

At the time, Scott characterized the parting of ways as "not amicable."

And the future of that relationship is still looking pretty bleak. Ferguson told the Nassau Guardian that her firm presented the TrimSpa endorser with a bill last year when they withdrew as counsel—and said that they didn't "want anything further to do with her."

"We did the work, did the job, everything was hunky-dory," Ferguson said. Since then, there has been "no settlement, no nothing, no contact, things just went from bad to worse."

Meanwhile, one of Smith's attorneys affirmed that she hasn't paid Callenders' fee, adding that his client has been waiting for an itemized bill to break down the charges for her.

Per a court order, Smith is currently prohibited from letting her account balances at the financial institutions of ScotiaBank Limited and Ansbacher Limited fall below $113,217.

"If she fails to comply and depletes her account, wires the money out or does anything with the money until we're paid, she's subject to contempt proceedings which could land her in Fox Hill [prison]," Ferguson said, adding that, according to the police officer who's trying to serve Smith with court papers, Smith appears to be trying to dodge the delivery.

"He went to the gate," Ferguson said, and "the maid said 'slip it under the gate.' She has no instructions to accept, come back on this day, come back another day, and it's just clear to him."

Ferguson also told the Guardian that if Smith avoids the issue throughout the two-week response period she's mandated by law, her firm will attempt to put a lien on a house the ex-Playboy Playmate may own in Coral Harbor (not to be confused with the waterfront manse she was evicted from last year).

"I am informed by pretty credible sources that she has bought this house," Ferguson said.

With her increasingly crowded legal calendar, it will be all Smith can do to make room for this latest dustup.

For starters, Smith was ordered by a Los Angeles court to present her four-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope, for paternity testing by next Tuesday, a move that should answer the question of just who the little girl's father is—Smith's current paramour, lawyer Howard K. Stern, or her ex, photographer Larry Birkhead. And, if it's neither...oh, boy.

Then, earlier this week a Bahaman court magistrate set a date of Mar. 27 for an inquest into the sudden death of Daniel Smith, who passed away three days after his baby sister was born. A pathologist determined the cause of death to be accidental consumption of a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressants, but an inquest will help authorities determine whether any particular party should be held liable for the young man's death, or whether criminal charges should be filed.