Overview
- The Chrisleys filed a federal malpractice suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Friday, seeking a jury trial and more than $25 million for lost income, reputational harm, legal costs, and family separation.
- They say their former firm, Balch & Bingham, and lead lawyer Chris Anulewicz failed to timely move to suppress “derivative” evidence—meaning emails, bank records and financial documents—that they contend flowed from a warrantless 2017 Georgia Department of Revenue warehouse search.
- The complaint accuses Anulewicz of lacking meaningful criminal defense experience and of steering the couple into a $75,000 investment in his brother‑in‑law’s food‑truck startup while he represented them.
- The suit ties those alleged defense errors to the couple’s 2019 indictment and their 2022 convictions on bank fraud and tax charges that led to prison terms of 12 years for Todd and seven years for Julie, sentences later undone by presidential pardons in 2025.
- Balch & Bingham and Anulewicz have not been formally served and their attorney says the claims will be vigorously defended; the case could prompt closer scrutiny of defense conduct and Fourth Amendment challenges to evidence in high‑profile federal prosecutions.