There have been some developments in the ongoing dispute between the Lawrence brothers, Hunter and Jett, and their former agent Lucas Mirtl. You may recall that the Lawrences, who both ride for the Honda HRC Progressive team, summarily fired Mirtl as their agent in January, claiming “we became aware of and in possession of evidence of misuse and misappropriation of our personal funds by our agent Lucas Mirtl for his benefit…”
Here’s that story.
Mirtl was also dismissed from the Wasserman Media Group (WMG). He then went on the PulpMX Show on January 27 and told Steve Matthes that he denied the allegations unequivocally. You can read more from Mirtl’s side and his Pulp interview here.
Three days later the Lawrence brothers filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Florida, claiming that Mirtl had spent significant amounts of money, estimated to exceed $600,000.
Fast forward to March 14. The Lawrence brothers voluntarily withdrew their complaint in that same U.S. District Court in Florida, without prejudice.
According to a social media post by WMG’s Jacob Hayes this morning, the court case was only dismissed in Federal Court due to both parties—the Lawrences and Mirtl—being non-U.S. citizens. Also complicating the matter is the fact that the plaintiffs and the defendant live in different states, Florida and Texas, respectively. However, that was not the end of the dispute because the Lawrences had already filed their lawsuit in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial District Circuit in Pasco County, Florida, back on March 3. That means the case is now a Florida state case instead of a U.S. Federal case. So this situation is still ongoing.
On March 7, the Pasco County Clerk posted a summons to be issued to Mirtl on March 12 notifying him of the new lawsuit and giving him 20 days to respond in writing, once the summons is served. According to that same social post by Hayes, Mirtl has been officially served papers to appear in Florida state court.
Mirtl continues to be defiant, posting on his own social today an edit using words like “pure fiction.” He has also remained an agent for several riders, including Tom Vialle, Jo Shimoda, and Lucas and Sacha Coenen.
