With his defence fund mired in controversy, Kimmage is concerned at the cost to him of Verbruggen's new actions in the old defamation case.
Paul Kimmage is facing a legal action from former UCI president Hein Verbruggen, with the latest chapter in the protracted and bitter battle having played out in the Swiss courts in recent weeks.
However, the Irish author and journalist faces uncertainty about the size of his legal bills.
He will have to pay them without the monies in the defence fund established for him when Verbruggen and another former UCI president Pat McQuaid first announced they were suing him for defamation.
As the Lance Armstrong affair engulfed the UCI in 2012 and McQuaid was preparing to run for the UCI presidential elections for a third time, the action against Kimmage was shelved.
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And while the world governing body and McQuaid have let the matter rest, Verbruggen has now decided to continue his part of the case and served papers on Kimmage just two weeks ago.
The Irishman confirmed to Cycling News that the papers were served and that he had lodged his own papers in recent days.
McQuaid with Kimmage when they were rider-manager at the Olympics; the action McQuaid was taking against the writer has not been re-activated.
“McQuaid and the UCI pulled out but Verbruggen is going ahead and the judge in Switzerland will decide on the case,” he said.
“I don’t get how it all works over there so I’m leaving it all in the hands of my lawyer out there.
“It’s going somewhere though. I’m really tired of Hein Verbruggen fucking up my life and he will be held accountable for that.”
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He added he was unsure how big his legal bills would be or how he would pay them.
“The killer for me is that it’s still not over. I’m still in court and I’m still dealing with lawyers and Verbruggen.
“I still have costs coming down the road and I don’t know how I’m going to pay them. That’s the annoyance because all the means I had at my disposal to defend myself, I don’t have that now.”
The fund that had been established to pay for Kimmage’s defence, which reached almost $100,000, has been mired in controversy and has itself become the subject of a protracted legal battle.
The Kimmage Defence Fund dates back to 2012 and was established by Lesli Cohen, Aaron Brown and NYVelocity.com's Andy Shen. It was run on that website and fans of the sport and of Kimmage’s were able to contribute to the defence of his legal action.
Brown, known on Twitter as @UCI_Overlord, was a founder of the Cyclismas website and former business partner of Cohen’s.
After around $21,000 of the fund was used by Kimmage to pay legal bills to defend himself, Brown took control of the account. He has argued the raising of the monies generated a tax liability that he would have to pay if all of the money was spent.
In the latest chapter of the long-running saga, Wisconsin judge Bill Hue, who was a donor to the fund, took a class action to the US courts.
According to him, the Massachusetts Superior Court has found Brown in default.
However, given the donors live across the world the prospect of any donors being repaid appears remote. It would depend on them pursuing the matter in their own jurisdictions; an action that would cost many multiples of the modest donations most people made.
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