overzealous advocacy – Overlawyered

“Defendants File Non-Opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Surreply to Motion for Leave to File Surreply”

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 04:05:42 +0000

“As is so often the case, the first sign of approaching disaster was a motion asking for leave to exceed the page limit….As part of the public service I provide, I have counted up the number of pages that were written, rewritten, printed, scanned, and/or filed by the lawyers during this titanic struggle, and, including exhibits, that number is 1,749. Not a single page of which will be considered by the Court or, in all likelihood, ever viewed again by any human being during the remainder of our species’ time on this planet. Perhaps eons hence some member of an alien race picking through our ruined archives will come upon it, and hurt its brain parts trying to figure it out.” [Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar, on E.D. Nev. class action discovery dispute]

Tags: discovery, overzealous advocacy

“Defendants File Non-Opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Surreply to Motion for Leave to File Surreply” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Professionalism and decorum,” plus foes’ “tattered bodies littered around the courtroom”

Walter Olson — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 10:05:44 +0000

A lawyer recruitment ad from Birmingham, Alabama is raising some eyebrows [Keith Lee]. “Maintaining professionalism and decorum” is important, at least up to a point: “You should want to destroy your enemies and leave their tattered bodies littered around the courtroom.” The pay? It starts at $35,000 a year.

1/ The Most Hilaribad Lawyer Job posting you'll read this year. "Destroy opponents and make lots of money!!!1!" pic.twitter.com/Uy1wiOFAkj

— Keith Lee (@associatesmind) August 1, 2017

Tags: Alabama, lawyers, overzealous advocacy

“Professionalism and decorum,” plus foes’ “tattered bodies littered around the courtroom” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Judge blasts warring parents who squandered $500K on custody battle”

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 10:15:58 +0000

Canada: An “outspoken Hamilton judge blasted warring parents for squandering $500,000 on their bitter child custody battle. ‘How did this happen?’ asked exasperated Ontario Superior Court Justice Alex Pazaratz. ‘How does this keep happening? What will it take to convince angry parents that nasty and aggressive litigation never turns out well?'” [Toronto Sun]

Tags: Canada, child custody, overzealous advocacy

“Judge blasts warring parents who squandered $500K on custody battle” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Federal judge scolds BigLaw lawyers for ‘behemoth pleadings’ and ‘prolixity'”

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 04:15:43 +0000

“A federal judge in Manhattan is ordering lawyers in a United Parcel Service lawsuit to file new pleadings that are short and plain, in keeping with Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. … UPS ‘launched its relatively straightforward claims with a sprawling 175-paragraph complaint, larded with more than 1,400 pages of exhibits,’ [U.S. District Judge William Pauley III] wrote. Lawyers for former franchisees responded with a 210-page answer with counterclaims and ‘voluminous exhibits,’ later expanded in an amended answer to a ‘breathtaking’ 303 pages that ‘brims with irrelevant and redundant allegations,’ Pauley said.” [ABA Journal]

Tags: overzealous advocacy, pleading, sanctions

“Federal judge scolds BigLaw lawyers for ‘behemoth pleadings’ and ‘prolixity'” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Order on One Millionth Discovery Dispute”

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 05:15:42 +0000

“A federal judge in Washington, D.C., is demonstrating her impatience with pretrial document battles with a ruling titled ‘Order on One Millionth Discovery Dispute.'” [ABA Journal]

Tags: discovery, overzealous advocacy

“Order on One Millionth Discovery Dispute” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Why one New Jersey man doesn’t fight

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 04:26:36 +0000

A successful whistleblower, he’s featured on the reality-TV show “Real Housewives of New Jersey” and one can only commend his pacific spirit, at least as regards physical combat:

I don’t fight. I think it’s stupid. I’m trained as an attorney. If I want to hurt you, I’m going to sue you. I’m going to leverage your house. I’m gonna give you three years of hell in a courtroom. I’m going to bleed you dry financially, and I’m going to humiliate you as I depose you for eight hours and make you my bitch.

[Newark Star-Ledger via Above the Law]

Tags: lawyers, New Jersey, overzealous advocacy, whistleblowers

Why one New Jersey man doesn’t fight is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Indiana: “Lawyer charged with felony intimidation over message to client’s ex-husband”

Walter Olson — Wed, 28 May 2014 04:15:58 +0000

Wait a minute. You took my profanity-laden, violence-suggestive tirade seriously? Attorney Hanson “said he had not meant to threaten the man, but simply convey that he would gather all relevant evidence to defend his client.” [ABA Journal]

Tags: Indiana, lawyers, overzealous advocacy

Indiana: “Lawyer charged with felony intimidation over message to client’s ex-husband” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Deposition Tricks: The Dirty Dozen”

Walter Olson — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:47:21 +0000

Twelve ways lawyers try to gain (often unfair) advantage when interrogating captive opponents. [Maryland Bar Journal/SSRN via Legal Ethics Forum]

Tags: discovery, ethics, overzealous advocacy

“Deposition Tricks: The Dirty Dozen” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Do you have a possible court case where you really want to ‘get’ someone?”

Walter Olson — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:54:49 +0000

Chris Fountain brings us a truly over-the-top California lawyer website: “For us, the other side is not merely an opponent—they’re the enemy! For us, litigation is war. We’ve given the term ‘scorched earth litigation’ new meaning … We carpet bomb the other side with discovery, and our deposition questions are like hellfire missiles.”

And the sequel he finds on Facebook is even funnier.

Tags: California, lawyers, overzealous advocacy

“Do you have a possible court case where you really want to ‘get’ someone?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“…what may well be the most oppressive motion ever presented to a superior court”

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:00:01 +0000

According to Paul Secunda at Workplace Prof Blog, a monstrously overgrown employment discrimination dispute recently ruled on by a California appellate court helps explain “why people like Walter Olson rightly believe in some cases that litigation is just plain overlawyered“.

Tags: overzealous advocacy, procedure

“…what may well be the most oppressive motion ever presented to a superior court” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system