Judge writes scathing opinion about attorney; opponent attorney mails opinion to client; losing attorney sues other attorney for defamation. No dice, but even this ludicrous suit does not result in sanctions. [Beck/Herrmann]
Beck and Herrmann miss, however, an especially interesting subplot. Wolk settled the underlying case, Taylor v. Teledyne, No. CIV.A.1:00-CV-1741-J (N.D. Ga.), on the condition that the order criticizing him be vacated. Did Wolk’s client suffer from a reduced settlement so that his attorney could avoid having the order used against him in other litigation? (The discovery violation complained about was apparently a repeat occurrence.) The district court permitted a settlement that vacated the order, but its only reported inquiry into whether Wolk did not suffer from a conflict of interest and was adequately protecting his client’s rights was Wolk’s representation to the court that the client was alright with the size of the settlement. That begs the question whether the client was fully aware of the conflict of interest; if, as seems to be the case, the N.D. Ga. failed to do so, one really wishes courts would do more to protect fiduciaries of plaintiffs’ attorneys before signing off on settlements. 338 F.Supp.2d 1323, 1327 (N.D. Ga. 2004), aff’d in unpublished summary per curiam opinion (11th Cir., Jun. 17, 2005).
We’ve earlier reported on Mr. Wolk for his lawsuits against commenters at an aviation website that criticized him: Sep. 16-17, 2002. As the Taylor opinion notes, Wolk also threatened to sue the federal judge in that case. He also filed what the Eleventh Circuit called a frivolous mandamus petition.
