By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

While the Grammy-winning Atlanta country duo Sugarland appears here Thursday night in concert, the group remains in a bitter legal dispute with its founding member over profits.

This fall, the band's original three members are scheduled to be reunited for a trial in federal court in Atlanta to resolve a lawsuit filed in 2008 by founding member Kristen Hall. Hall sued the band's current members, Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, saying she is owed more than $1.5 million for being denied her one-third share of the Sugarland partnership.

Hall's lawsuit says she devoted significant time, energy and passion to make Sugarland a success. This includes re-recording the song, "Baby Girl, which became one of the longest-charting debut singles in the history of country music, the suit said.

After Hall left the band in late 2005, Sugarland enjoyed enormous success. In 2008, its album "Love on the Inside" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard music charts. Last year, the band won two Grammy Awards.

Sugarland plays Thursday night at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta and is expected to play songs from its fourth album, "The Incredible Machine," to be released Oct. 19.

In court filings, lawyers for Nettles and Bush call Hall's lawsuit "nothing more than quitter's remorse."

Hall is now trying to paint herself as the victim and claim she built Sugarland from the ground up, but she left Sugarland on her own accord with no expectation of ever working with Nettles and Bush again, the court motions say.

When Hall left the band it had assets of $15,344 and liabilities totaling $99,042. Nettles and Bush paid off the liabilities themselves, without asking Hall for her one-third share, the motions say.

When asked during a pre-trial deposition to describe Hall's positive contributions to Sugarland, Nettles called her "a decent songwriter." When asked if there was anything else she could say about Hall, Nettles replied, "She had the wherewithal and smarts to call me."

Hall's lawyer, Minneapolis lawyer Barry O'Neil, said Wednesday his client respects Nettles and Bush for being "creative artists and very savvy business people who have enjoyed a lot of success." But the duo should not be launching personal attacks on Hall's integrity, he said.

"They know this was a partnership," O'Neil said. "This just comes down to fairness -- whether Ms. Hall will be fairly compensated for all the work she did on behalf of getting Sugarland off the ground."

Sugarland's lawyer, Jim Grant, declined comment.

Sugarland was formed in early 2002 after Hall asked Bush to consider joining the band. Nettles came aboard a few months later, and Sugarland debuted at Eddie's Attic in Decatur in September 2002.

In the fall of 2002, Hall, Bush and Nettles applied for a Sugarland trademark, which was awarded to them in August 2003. In the ensuing months, after Sugarland signed a recording contract with MCA Nashville, the trio stopped treating the band as a side project, according to court motions. They incorporated two companies to run the band's tours and merchandise sales and became equal shareholders.

From October 2003 to November 2005, the trio released an album and toured almost non-stop. But during this time, according to court motions, Hall grew increasingly unhappy and repeatedly threatened to quit the act. At one point, the group hired an occupational therapist to help the members work through their problems. But ultimately Hall decided to stop touring, and the trio played their last performance together on Dec. 19, 2005, in Las Vegas.

The trio are scheduled to see each other again in federal court at a trial scheduled to begin Nov. 15. In an order handed down earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten denied a request by Nettles and Bush to dismiss Hall's lawsuit, saying that a jury should decide when the trio's partnership was created and when it was dissolved and whether the band's trademarks were property of the trio's partnership.