Cellino & Barnes Jingle Could Die In Court Fight: Report

NEW YORK, NY — Super-lawyers Cellino and Barnes have brought their famous phone number— 1-800-888-8888 — into a bitter court fight, according to a new report in the New York Daily News.

Ross Cellino, who wants to dissolve the ubiquitous personal injury firm, has reportedly alleged in court papers that partner Stephen Barnes paid $900,000 for a new phone number to help expand his "national brand."

Barnes is even airing TV commercials for his new firm, the Barnes Firm, that feature the new number, 1-800-0000, and a new jingle that sings "800-8 million," the Daily News reported.

The phone number has been a big piece of the Cellino & Barnes identity for years. It's plastered on ads next to the pair's faces and is impossible to get out of your head when you hear it on the firm's old commmercials.

But Cellino charges that Barnes is using the new number to start a new firm, which Cellino worries will snap up his business, the Daily News reported. The pair have reportedly been locked in an increasingly bitter fight over their firm's future since Cellino filed dissolution papers in May. The firm is still operating in New York and California.

“Barnes has been able to get an unfair head start with his own law firm that will put me at a competitive disadvantage,” Cellino said in court papers, according to the Daily News.

Read the full New York Daily News report here.

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