Photo: Andrii Yalanskyi / iStock / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Mick Mars, who in January won a legal battle with his former Motley Crue bandmates over corporate document production related to his 2022 dismissal from the group, should be denied his request for $285,000 in attorneys' fees and costs, the band's attorneys argue in new court papers.
The 72-year-old former lead guitarist for the group filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court last April 6 asking that companies associated with the band turn over business records and pay for his attorneys' fees. Mars says he has suffered from a chronic form of arthritis that has effectively fused his spine and made him three inches shorter than he was in high school, and that he is unable to turn his head in any direction.
On Jan. 16, Judge James C. Chalfant found that Mars was forced to file a legal action in order to obtain the documents he was entitled to receive long before the Dec. 8 timeline when nearly 1,400 pages were finally delivered. Mars' attorneys subsequently filed court papers seeking $282,160 in attorneys' fees and $2,180 in costs. A hearing on Mars' motion for attorneys' fees is scheduled April 11.
But in court papers brought Thursday, the band's lawyers say Mars should not receive any attorneys' fees, but if the judge does decide to grant the motion, the guitarist should receive no more than $28,215, representing 10% of what he has requested.
Mars "inflated the time spent by his attorneys, sought compensation for work on a separate arbitration, refused to produce the best evidence supporting his motion, manufactured billing entries instead of producing real invoices and padded his bills," the Motley Crue lawyers contend in their court papers.
According to Mars, he told the other band members he wanted to remain active in the band even though he would not continue to go on tour.
"I made it very clear that I was not completely retiring from the band and would make myself readily available for any other band activity, such as recording, Vegas-type residencies and one-off concerts," Mars said in a sworn declaration.
About a month after the end of the group's Stadium Tour in October 2022, Mars received a draft separation and release agreement "completely out of the blue," the guitarist said.
"I found the terms of the ... agreement to be hideously one-sided and unfair," Mars said. "I refused to sign it. I spent 41 years of participating in creating, building and maintaining the band, along with the associated globally-recognized goodwill of the name `Motley Crue,' which is my and the others' legacy."
The group made "huge amounts of money" on the recently concluded World Tour that Motley Crue co-headlined with British rockers Def Leppard, Mars said.
"I believe that the other band members saw a tremendous opening to make even more money by effectively taking my share of that money," Mars said.
Mars co-founded the band in 1981 and came up with the name "Motley Crue." He suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis. He was diagnosed with the condition at age 27.
"The disease has caused me severe pain throughout my career," Mars says. "I started being unable to turn my head in the late 1990s and can no longer move my head in any direction."
Mars said he has not been able to drive for years and that he has to sleep until 3 p.m. daily when touring. He also maintained he is a 25% shareholder in the band entities.
He last appeared in concert with the band in September 2022 and the group now tours with substitute guitarist John 5, a 52-year-old former member of Marilyn Manson's band.
Mars' former band colleagues have said Mars was replaced because he retired.