[TX] What legal action can I take against an opposing attorney for questionable conduct during a consultation?

I filed a petition in small claims court in Texas for a breach of contract - $5k in damages. It is a pretty simple case: We had a contract with a wedding venue, and a few weeks prior to the event, they decided to not renew their lease and cancelled the contract. The defendant attorney has filed an elaborate original answer and denial and motion to abate, and is privately harassing and threatening me to recover $10k in his legal fees. I want to know.

No.

I feel more confident about my next steps.

Yes.

The attorney has merely threatened to recover fees if I file a response to his last motion (original answer, general denial, motion to abate). He owns a law firm and claims he has spent $9k in legal fees. While he's been very sloppy and perhaps unethical in the way he has pursued the case, I believe he's really spent that much time on the matter.

The contract does not mention anything about dispute or prevailing party ability to recover legal fees. He's trying to intimidate us.

I want to understand if I can just ask the court for a hearing or if I need to answer the nonsense in the motion to abate.

My wife and I contracted with a restaurant for a wedding celebration, about 9 months in advance. We paid a 50% deposit. The contract stated that if either party canceled within 30 days of the event a penalty fee of $3800 would apply.

About 32 days before the event the restaurant announced on social media that they were closing. We followed up and at 27 days prior to the event they issued a formal cancellation declaring the contract "null and void." The reason: They made a decision to not renew their lease. There is a force majeure clause in the agreement that mentions a few normal things but not a decision to not renew their lease.

Their motion to abate consists of about 3 pages of arguments that are based on a trivial name mismatch between the contract and the petition. The contract is signed by my wife, and the petition is filed by her as well. The motion to abate claims I am practicing law without a license because I did not sign the contract.

The attorney insisted on meeting me privately and advised me that small claims court was full of "poor people and minorities" who would see me as a "rich white 1%-er" and I would lose the case.

He was threatening to make it a jury trial, so he could take advantage of what he claimed would be an inherent bias/unfairness of the jury pool. I would hate to waste a jury's time with this. A note that I sent to attorney after that meeting:

"I respectfully ask that we keep any future conversations focused on the merits of the case, facts, and applicable law. I indulged your request to meet privately at Starbucks yesterday, but your approach to the meeting is problematic under Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct (TDRPC) Specifically:

You claimed that the entirety of settlement conversations were confidential under Texas Rule of Evidence 408, which is a false statement of law to an unrepresented party and appears to violate TDRPC Rule 4.01.

You stated that a jury would consist of "poor people, minorities' and that 'they are going to see you as a rich white guy trying to take money from a pizza shop." You made other statements about fairness of the system, potential conflict with my wife, and escalating litigation. Such statements are highly improper and serve no substantial purpose other than to intimidate and harass while giving legal advice to a pro se adversary.

I've recorded my notes from the conversation and hope we never need to discuss this again. We can discuss the merits, facts, and law, but I insist we keep conversations aligned with professional standards."

Do I need to address his false claims in a motion, or can I just request a hearing date and address the judge's questions then? For example, the claim about me practicing law without a license. Also his motion includes something he copy and pasted from another case, by mistake, which states that he represents me. He is saying that if I file a motion it will incur more legal fees and he will come after us for the fees.

Can you suggest anything additional I can do that would minimize the risk of being held accountable for the defendant's legal fees? I initially offered to settle the case in exchange for some salad for a private event. I've made multiple offers to resolve the case, reducing my demand. Everything about this case is documented—only 2 conversations were live and I made detailed documentation of those conversations. Is the behavior I've described consistent with a reasonable motion for sanctions?  I think the judge would be very upset to hear about the behavior, but could also see it being "just lawyer being lawyer."

Ok, so I plan to do the following:

1. Send the defendant counsel a letter objecting again to the behavior and offering to make a reasonable settlement
2. File a motion requesting a hearing date

Should I go ahead and pre-emptively issue the request for sanctions along with that motion? I've given the guy a bunch of chances, this has been in play for 6 months, he's clearly just a reckless person or thinks I'm stupid.