Adeline Scomello of Suffolk County, N.Y. engaged five attorneys to represent her in divorce proceedings, and sued all five for legal malpractice. Now a judge has finally thrown out, with strong words as to its lack of merit, her pro se suit against lawyer #2 in the series — a suit that lasted for eighteen years. Dismissing her 329-page application for reargument, Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Arlen Spinner wrote that New York’s public policy of “unfettered access to the courts” must give way at some point. (Mark Fass, “Judge Halts Pro Se Litigant’s ‘Abusive Litigation Practices’ Against Divorce Lawyers”, New York Law Journal, May 11). (Corrected to fix typo in litigant’s name).
Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
Update: Jury clears Diaz of tax evasion charges
In the latest chapter of the long-running Mississippi judicial scandal (Dec. 10, etc.), a jury has cleared Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. of federal tax evasion charges. (Jimmie E. Gates, “Jury clears Diaz”, Jackson Clarion Ledger, Apr. 28; Julie Goodman, “Diaz acquittal fuels election questions”, Jackson Clarion Ledger, Apr. 29). Earlier, a jury had acquitted Diaz of corruption charges while failing to resolve charges against several other figures in the long-running case, who face retrial in August.
“Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Burkhalter said loans backed by prominent attorneys Richard Scruggs and Paul Minor were not repaid by the Diazes, ‘who used substantial amounts of the money for personal use. They didn’t put it on their tax return.'” (Shelia Byrd, “Diaz attorney says client didn’t deliberately withhold tax information”, AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald, Apr. 25). “Defense attorneys described Diaz as a disorganized fellow who left details such as taxes and finances to his wife and who would not knowingly hide income from the government.” (“Jury acquits Diaz in tax case”, AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald, Apr. 27; Jimmie E. Gates, “Prosecutor: Diaz didn’t report all funds to IRS”, Jackson Clarion Ledger, Apr. 26).
Deep Pocket Files: Anthony Pellicano fallout
Like libertarian blogger Amber Taylor, I’ve been enjoying the DVD of the show “Veronica Mars.” Kristen Bell plays a perky private eye who uses bugs and stolen medical records to solve cases. I just have to suspend my disbelief, and understand that Mars lives in a fictional world like that of Bruce Wayne where the laws that would have her sued into oblivion for her wiretapping and HIPAA violations don’t exist.
The Pellicano scandal (Apr. 3 and links therein) shows the real-world results. It’s natural that wiretapping victims are suing Pellicano and the law firms that hired him over his alleged wiretapping and bribery tactics.
But plaintiffs’ lawyers aren’t stopping with the egregious wrongdoers. For example, Craig Stevens pled guilty to taking bribes to run searches on Pellicano clients—a sign of Pellicano incompetence, since the data would be available from public databases on the Internet. (Want to know who’s in jail?) Stevens has resigned from the Beverly Hills Police Department, but the city (along with Los Angeles, who allegedly had their own bribed cops) is being sued for failure to stop their officer from being bribed. Los Angeles attorney Kevin McDermott predicts that the telephone company will also be sued for not doing enough to stop Pellicano wiretapping and, sure enough, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian has sued AT&T. In the Vanity Fair article, don’t miss the bit about how Daniel and Abner Nicherie allegedly used a blizzard of over a hundred lawsuits to protect a $40 million swindle. (Bryan Burrough and John Connolly, “Inside Hollywood’s Big Wiretap Scandal”, Vanity Fair, June 2006; Gabriel Snyder, “Names take aim at Pellicano article”, Variety, Apr. 28 (via Defamer); Greg Krikorian and Andrew Blankstein, “Filmmaker Says He Lied in FBI Probe”, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 18).
Don’t
More things not to do if you’re a practicing lawyer, all from recent Law.com reports: Don’t abscond with the down payments that your real estate clients have laid down on houses, as 19 New York attorneys apparently could not resist doing last year (John Caher, “Light-Fingered Lawyers Cause Spike in Client Fund Payouts”, New York Law Journal, Apr. 17). Don’t “[hum] ‘The Twilight Zone’ theme song to imply a client’s ex-wife — seated at the same table during a post-judgment divorce proceeding — is mentally unstable,” which drew a reprimand for Torrington, Ct. attorney Steven H. Levy (Douglas S. Malan, “Attorney Gets Static for ‘Twilight Zone’ Rendition During Divorce Proceeding”, Connecticut Law Tribune, Apr. 13). And if you’ve gotten caught in a colorful episode of legal malpractice in which you falsely claimed (among other things) to have founded an L.L.M. program at New York University School of Law, don’t engage in “elaborate and sometimes fraudulent efforts” to avoid paying the judgment to your former client, for which offense federal judge Denise Cote requested that the U.S. attorney’s office prosecute New York lawyer David A. Dorfman (Tom Perrotta, “Federal Judge Requests Prosecution of Attorney for Criminal Contempt”, New York Law Journal, Apr. 19). More in our “Don’t” series: Aug. 3 and Sept. 13, 2005; Jan. 20 and Apr. 12, 2006.
More on Joe Jamail
A belated viewing of the now infamous deposition video (see Apr. 8) stirs memories for Prof. Bainbridge of a few highlights from the suave and distinguished career of zillionaire Houston litigator Joe “You could gag a maggot off a meat wagon” Jamail (Apr. 20). In comments, “Thief” of “Thief’s Den” points out that famously civility-challenged lawprof Brian Leiter holds the “Joseph D. Jamail Centennial Chair in Law” at the University of Texas, Austin.
Delaware court hails non-aromatic fee request
Delaware Chancery Court Judge Vice Chancellor Leo Strine, a prominent figure in corporate law, recently was asked to rule on a petition for fees for lawyers who represented a minority shareholder in litigation involving fallen mogul Conrad Black’s Hollinger International. Per the WSJ:
“I feel queasy a lot of the times when I examine applications for attorneys’ fees,” the judge told lawyers in court. “But I have to get right in there, take my Maalox, ignore the vile smell.”
All of which was by way of paying a left-handed compliment to the fee petition before him, which by contrast in Strine’s view had the earmarks of legitimacy. (It was filed by minority shareholder Tweedy Browne Co. and its lawyers, Kirby McInerney & Squire and Bouchard, Margules & Friedlander).
The current case, he added, is different. It “isn’t even close to having an aroma that makes me queasy.”
(Elena Cherney, “When Investors Help Find Fraud, What’s It Worth?”, Wall Street Journal, Mar. 17)(sub).
Jack Thompson update: Florida bar latest target
Overlawyered favorite Jack Thompson has followed through his threat to sue the Florida Bar for daring to investigate him for ethical violations. He also complained to the interim U.S. Attorney, who punted to the FBI, which will likely give the complaint the sound ignoring it deserves. The Daily Business Review story for some reason refers to the Alabama suit against video game “Grand Theft Auto,” which we had previously reported Jack Thompson had quit. (Carl Jones, “Anti-Porn Crusader Sues Over Bar Probe”, Daily Business Review, Apr. 14).
Don’t
If you’re a judge who sentences violators to attend traffic school, don’t take kickbacks from the traffic school operators. Former Roane County, Tennessee Judge Thomas Austin has now pleaded guilty to three federal charges arising from allegations of that sort. Sentencing is expected in August (WVLT, Mar. 29).
Contingency fee-o-rama
Anyone interested in the ethical, practical and philosophical case for and against the lawyers’ contingency fee (or contingent fee; usage varies) should be sure to check out two new resources:
* At Point of Law, the new Featured Discussion just underway pits George Mason lawprof Alex Tabarrok, who’s generally supportive of contingency fees, against Jim Copland of the Manhattan Institute, who’s critical;
* David Giacalone, who has written extensively on the problems inherent in protecting clients from overreaching by their lawyers, has now posted a four-part series (one, two, three, four) laying out his views on the pluses and minuses of the contingency fee more systematically than his blog posts have done up to now.
For my own views, see Chapter Two of my 1991 book The Litigation Explosion, which Point of Law has posted in PDF format.
How Joe Jamail conducts a deposition
Dignity of the profession dept.: this YouTube video of the famed Texas lawyer and UT benefactor in action is making the rounds (warning: offensive everything). It’s discussed by BrainWidth, Froomkin, Childs, Hurt, Kirkendall, Caron, Metafilter, etc. One of those present The man in the chair is named Edward Carstarphen. [note: a commenter says we erred in initially reporting that Carstarphen was the witness being deposed; see also David Stone, Apr. 11]. For more on Mr. Jamail’s record as a paladin of civility, see Apr. 19, 2000 (“gag a maggot off a meat wagon”). Update: link changed to working YouTube location, see Jan. 9, 2007.