REALTORS ASSOCIATION SUIT STRIKES BACK AGAINST ATTORNEY.

Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX

``Stop picking on us!''

That's the message the California Association of Realtors has for San Francisco attorney David Barry.

The association delivered it in a 44-page lawsuit, including exhibits, filed in San Diego County Superior Court against Barry and two of his former clients.

Without getting tangled up in legalese, CAR's position is basically, we went to court and we won so you can't hit the replay button and sue over the same matter again.

``We had expectations that he would respect the court's decision and he didn't,'' said June Barlow, the association's vice president and general counsel.

State law prevents malicious prosecution, like when a lawyer refiles the same matter against the same defendants and causes them to incur attorney fees.

That's what Barry did, Barlow maintains.

So the association filed a malicious prosecution action against him.

The industry and Barry have a litigious relationship dating back to the 1980s. Barlow said that Barry has sued her association more than a dozen times.

Trying to unravel the lawsuit tangle would cause a serious newsprint shortage. Let's just say it's really complicated.

And these are the only facts the two sides agree on.

Barry claims that a press release put out by CAR about its lawsuit and widely distributed by real estate news services is full of inaccuracies.

Like the claim that Barry rarely wins his cases. (He seems to be doing OK for himself. His office is at Pier 9 in San Francisco.)

There were settlements, the kind where the defendant agrees to settle to avoid the cost of going to court.

Barry counts those as wins. ``My clients sued for money. They got money.''

That seems like pretty good lawyering.

And usually, Barry is the one doing the suing.

This current flap is over a suit he filed against CAR and real estate associations in San Diego County. He claimed they conspired to fix the price of information supplied by the Multiple Listing Service.

The MLS is a business that sells information about houses and condos for sale to those willing to pay for it. The buyers are mostly Realtors or their trade associations.

In this instance, CAR got off but Barry prevailed against the other defendants.

He got some money, too. ``I got paid $2 million to try that case, eight years of work and 8,000 hours of effort.''

He also said that CAR did not play fair because it failed to disclose some documents that he'd requested.

Barry said that's why he sued them again so it's over a different matter, not the same issue that the court decided.

And he thinks CAR's malicious prosecution suit is just a nuisance.

``The purpose of it is to intimidate me and my future clients,'' Barry said.

Now he's thinking about SLAPPing CAR.

That's a suit filed under provisions of the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation statute enacted in 1992 that allows for a motion to strike a complaint that arises from conduct that falls within the rights of petition and free speech.

``My first action will be to try to get it dismissed within the first 60 days (under) the SLAPP statute,'' he said of CAR's suit. ``I think we're getting some knockout blows ready.''

Imagine that. These two old foes ending up back in court. Again.

Gregory J. Wilcox, [phone]

greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com