Michelle Schnitt testifies in case against her, MJ

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Michelle Schnitt said the defamation lawsuit filed against her husband's radio rival, Bubba the Love Sponge, was taking its toll, adding she wanted to drop the lawsuit, Wednesday during court.

"We had had enough," she testified.

Michelle and her husband, Todd "MJ" Schnitt lost their case against Bubba, and ended up owing nearly a million dollars in legal fees. 

Now, they're being sued because they refused to pay their lawyers who, they say, gave them bad advice and mislead them on their chances of winning.

The Schnitts blame attorney Phil Campbell, of Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick, for behaving poorly outside the courtroom. Their example for his behavior was his arrest for alleged DUI while their trial was underway.

"My husband said, 'this is malpractice and we need to get a mistrial,'" Michelle Schnitt recalled.

However, Campbell's DUI arrest was a setup orchestrated by the some of the attorneys representing Bubba.

Jaime Austrich with Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick says the Schnitts were eager to have the scheme investigated and exposed.

"There is no amount of information or expense that they were willing to go through in order to bring down their arch nemesis, Bubba the Love Sponge," Austrich testified.

Phil Campbell testified it was the Schnitts who pushed to find dirt on Bubba, but Michelle refuted that.

Wednesday, her attorney, Thomas Roebig asked her, "is it the intention to catch Mr. (Bubba the Love Sponge) Clem on video tape in the company of a prostitute?"

Michelle replied, "that was Mr. Campbell's idea, yes."

During cross examination, however, Michelle admitted she encouraged lawyers to make Bubba look bad.

Attorney Joe Varner pressed her, "another thing you did was looked into buying all the tickets to one of his events and having no one show up right?"

Michelle Schnitt agreed and added, "Mr. Campbell said, 'don't do it,' so I didn't."

She conceded to something else, as well.

Attorney Joe Varner: "You're raising a lot of issues in this lawsuit to avoid paying the bill, aren't you?"

Michelle Schnitt: "Mr. Varner... there has been a tremendous wrong here. This isn't avoidance."

Attorney Joe Varner: "I think we have a jury who will decide that."

Michelle Schnitt: "There were a lot of issues, yes."

The Schnitts are counter-suing the law firm, claiming the defamation lawsuit should have never gone to trial because it was unwinnable. They are asking the firm to reimburse the nearly $1 million in fees they already paid.

Todd "MJ" Schnitt did not testify in the trial. His wife told the jury he was busy on his radio show in New York, and taking care of their kids.

This case is expected to go to the jury on Thursday.