“To Kill a Mockingbird,” filed a lawsuit against her literary agent Friday claiming he took advantage of her age and ill-health to steal her royalties.

By Robert Gearty and Ginger Adams Otis

She needs a lawyer like Atticus Finch.

Acclaimed writer Harper Lee, the 87-year-old author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” filed a lawsuit against her literary agent Friday claiming he took advantage of her age and ill-health to steal her royalties.

Lee, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the 1960 novel dealing with race, morality and the law in the American South, sued Samuel Pinkus and others in New York federal court to ensure her ownership of the copyright to her book and get back allegedly lost commissions.

The author was in an assisted-living facility in Monroeville, Ala., in 2007 after suffering a stroke when Pinkus had her sign a document giving his company her copyright, her lawsuit says.

Lee, who has failing eyesight and hearing, didn’t know what she was signing, her lawyer said.

The copyright was re-assigned to Lee last year after legal action, and Pinkus was discharged as Lee’s agent.
Read More Where’s Atticus Finch when you need him? Author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in legal battle with agent  – NY Daily News.