Mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell has been awarded $51 million in damages by a Boston jury, which found that her financial management company had been negligent of their fiduciary duty.

The award-winning novelist won $50.9 million in damages in a federal court in Boston. She had filed a lawsuit against her former financial management company, claiming in her lawsuit that the company, Anchin, Block and Anchin LLP, and its former principal Evan Snapper had been negligent in the handling of her finances. According to the lawsuit, Snapper and his colleagues at the company made millions of dollars in profits from their dealings with the novelist, while causing both her and her company millions of dollars in losses.

The trial lasted for 7 weeks, and the jury obviously decided that Cromwell, as California commercial litigation lawyers would bluntly put it, had been fleeced. The jury found that the Manhattan-based financial management company had indeed caused her to lose millions of dollars.

The novelist claimed that she had made more than $89 million during the 4 years after she hired the services of the financial management company, and later was shocked to find that her net worth was very little. In 2009, she fired the company when she realized that her net worth was just under $13 million. This was in spite of the fact that she had had a very good 4 years since hiring Anchin, Block and Anchin, earning in the 8 figures almost each year of the 4 years.

There may be more bad news in store for Anchin, Block and Anchin LLP. It is likely that the jury could possibly triple the award later this week, when the judge decides whether the company also violated consumer protection laws.