A federal lawsuit filed against a Bath boarding school could be in jeopardy after a Maine-based attorney withdrew from the case over a recent filing he said included “inaccurate and unsupported legal citations.”

A Florida woman, Jessica Fuller, sued Hyde School in July, alleging she and other former students were subjected to abuse, neglect and forced labor. She is requesting class action status to represent all former students in the same position. A judge has not yet weighed in on that request.

The plaintiff is represented by Massachusetts attorney Kelly Guagenty, who had Maine attorney John Steed sponsor her to practice here and sign on to the lawsuit.

Last week, however, Steed asked the court if he could withdraw from the case after Hyde’s attorneys pointed out several legal errors in a recent filing.

The school filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in October. In a response to that motion filed Nov. 25, Guagenty argued against dismissal and improperly cited two other federal lawsuits to support her claims. Hyde’s attorneys also suggested the cases Guagenty tried to include had “nothing to do with forced labor claims” or the lawsuit.

Guagenty also improperly quoted Maine’s law for human trafficking lawsuits, erroneously including the phrase “compelling a person to provide or to continue to provide labor or services.”

In a filing last week, Guagenty called the mistakes “clerical errors” that should not “affect the merits” of her client’s case.

“These citation formatting errors, while haphazard and regrettable, do not reflect any lack of candor, competence, or fitness to practice before this Court,” she said.

After withdrawing from the case and withdrawing his sponsorship for Guagenty, Steed said he would do his “utmost to assist in finding appropriate counsel” to take over. Guagenty has now requested permission to continue without a local attorney or be given 60 days to find someone new.

U.S. District Judge Stacey Neumann had not responded Monday to Guagenty’s request, or to the school’s original motion to dismiss.

Fuller named five Hyde School officials in her initial 16-count complaint, alleging they violated federal and state anti-trafficking laws and conspiracy to commit trafficking violations. In a court filing last month, her attorney said they were voluntarily dropping six of those counts that alleged negligence, infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring.

Steed said in his withdrawal request that he did not participate in drafting the Nov. 25 filing and “was not specifically aware that it was being filed in my name,” although he said he consented via text that he didn’t object. He did not respond to requests by the Press Herald for comment on his withdrawal.

Guagenty declined to comment on the filings or Steed’s withdrawal.

“We are focused on allowing the Court to address the pending matters so that the case can proceed in an orderly way, and we look forward to litigating the claims on their merits as the Court moves the case forward,” she said in an email Monday.

Attorneys for Hyde filed a reply to Guagenty last Thursday, and argued the mistakes were more than just clerical errors.

“Attorney Guagenty must think very little of Maine practitioners and this Court to argue that the errors in Plaintiff’s brief can be overlooked as merely a ‘handful’ of ‘clerical errors’ or ‘citation formatting’ errors,” Hyde’s attorneys Martha Gaythwaite and Sarah Grossnickle wrote in court records.

They declined to comment further Monday, deferring instead to the filings.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed this summer, the Press Herald published an investigation based on interviews with many former students who said they had experienced physical or emotional abuse at the school. Since then, dozens more have come forward to say the same.

At the same time, many have defended the school, saying those claims do not reflect their experiences at Hyde. More than 500 former students, parents and faculty members put their names on a July advertisement arguing the school had been misrepresented in interviews and on social media.

Staff Writer Emily Allen contributed reporting.