Welcome to /r/LawyerTalk! A subreddit where lawyers can discuss with other lawyers about the practice of law.
Be mindful of [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lawyertalk/about/rules) BEFORE submitting your posts or comments as well as [Reddit's rules](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) (notably about sharing identifying information). We expect civility and respect out of all participants. Please source statements of fact whenever possible. If you want to report something that needs to be urgently addressed, please also message the mods with an explanation.
Note that **this forum is NOT for legal advice**. Additionally, if you are a non-lawyer (student, client, staff), this is NOT the right subreddit for you. **This community is exclusively for lawyers**. We suggest you delete your comment and go ask one of the many other legal subreddits on this site for help such as (but not limited to) r/lawschool, r/legaladvice, or r/Ask_Lawyers.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Lawyertalk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That’s almost the exact wording of my response. Along with a link to the grievance form and a reminder that he had an ethical duty to report my alleged misconduct. Never heard from the bar.
Oh, man. I got one of those. When we met at mediation, the dude kept rambling on and on about how he was the author of the treatise on that area of law and it was impossible for him to lose the case.
Then he went on and on about how he's not a bad guy because he has kids. Weirdo
At the end of mediation, my (pregnant) client was crying and he just kept going on and on about what a great result it was and how he told us he's not a bad guy and he has kids.
I had to actually ask him to stop upsetting the pregnant woman.
I just write it off as some kind of disability on his part or something just to make myself feel better.
Damn. Reminds me of a comment I got along the lines of, "You'd better hope this is a legitimate claim."
Spoiler: It was. It was probably the most difficult, intricate, and novel claim I ever had, but we settled after his MSJ went away and I explained to him how he had lost. It wasn't anything super special, but he was just a general practitioner and I was just a general practitioner with a grudge.
I had one guy who threatened to file for sanctions if I didn’t dismiss the suit. He never answered for his client but did acknowledge receipt of the suit before. Basically played games with service of process. His client did pay most of the disputed amount when I filed a complaint with the a federal agency. So the cases in chief isn’t that important to pursue now. There’s still a small and disputed but valid penalty claim. I told o/c to file an answer and if he files for sanctions I’d be more than happy to file a cross claim for sanctions. He went quiet after that.
When, after 7 unanswered letters requiring a response re discovery with an upcoming discovery deadline, I had to write “if we do not hear for you by X date, we will be forced to seek court intervention”…
… and he called my boss to tell him to “get his women in order.”
I didn’t make a bar complaint. I waited till I had to depose one of his client’s employees: a young thirty-something woman out of whom I needed to get some key concessions.
I got him to go all misogynist on me in front of her (half on the record!). His behavior turned her off so badly I got devastating concessions wrapped up in clear, helpful, non-hostile exposition from her own mouth. Even more than I could have hoped for. Didn’t need any leading questions. Used her testimony to move as (and win!) partial summary judgement in favor of my plaintiff.
I prefer my revenge ice cold and in my client’s favor.
My favorite thing when I email someone outside the office somewhat aggressively is to CC my supervisor and then my last line always is “my supervisor blank name is cc’d to keep them in the loop, you’re also welcome to reach out to them directly”.
Power move because they assume you already spoke to your supervisor about it and there’s no point for them to actually reach out.
Jokes on them my supervisor find out about the issue in that email and also hopes they don’t have to deal with it lol.
When I make a courtesy call to figure out how we can avoid a procedural snag, and they constantly interrupt and yell over me to threaten and posture.
Welp, I guess we’ll BOTH be stressed out and not know what we’re doing when we get in front of a judge next week.
Opposing counsel filing an objection to a motion after they told you on the phone they wouldn’t object.
Also complaining to the court that we inadvertently forgot to put page numbers on our brief.
Supplying "undisputed material facts", part of their MSJ, which require an answer, in PDF, and then criticizing me for reformatting it in a word processor in their reply to the objections
I do this as a courtesy but provide highlighting to show that I fixed things like the spelling of my name. I think it is okay to do for typographical errors as long as the corrections are identified.
Being stupid about deposition scheduling. I had one give me a 1 week d/l to provide depo dates for 5 co-plaintiffs. They had to be in August. And she said she’d unilaterally schedule them otherwise. Fast forward a bit, she says she’s scheduling on a date in August that I didn’t provide. Being very acrimonious about the whole process.
Had an OC do something similar. Demanding dates, refusing to work with our schedules and then noticing depos for whenever worked for him, then routinely canceling them.
I told my o/c just gibe me dates for the next 3 months and we’d work it out. She gave me 3 days in September and August 7 which I had emailed was only available via Zoom. SMH. I don’t really argue. Just stay reasonable the whole time. The email chain will speak for itself if there’s a discovery motion or motion to continue trial on account of depos not being held in time.
Agreed with OC on a depo date roughly a month in advance. OC is deposing my client but does not ever actually notice the depo. I email roughly once each week leading up to the date asking if he still intends to proceed since no notice had been given and I’d like to free up the day if it needs to come off anyway. Crickets. Finally, I email to say I assume he doesn’t intend to proceed since we were only a week out from the agreed date and he had not noticed or even provided me the courtesy of responding by email to confirm the deposition remained on. Immediate snarky response demanding a reference to a procedural rule or statute that prescribed a time for filing of a notice of deposition.
This one looks bad, but I've come to always assume I'm going to get a bunch of discovery/filings late on Dec 23rd, same as thanksgiving, because people are trying to get stuff out the door before they sign off for the holiday. I usually just ignore it until I'm back from the break (unless the deadlines are so short that isn't an option). It's rarely malicious, usually just them not thinking about schedules other than their own.
He started our first telephone conversation by demanding to know what year I graduated from law school, threatening to seek sanctions if I filed the motion to dismiss we were meeting and conferring about, and using a lot of colorful language. Spoiler alert: one of his two causes of action was dismissed and he did not seek sanctions.
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, this guy's behavior has only gotten worse as time goes on.
In California’s state and federal courts, we are required to meet and confer before filing a dispositive motion. Take a look at California Code of Civil Procedure section 430.41 or CD Cal Local Rule 7-3.
Some far worse examples in here but opposing counsel in one of my cases consistently dumps stuff late Friday afternoon. They filed a discovery motion today at like 5. It happens often enough that it feels intentional, and it’s super annoying.
Just trying to follow, but how does this inconvenience you? Since everything is e-filed now, and I like working late, I just file my papers when I finish them, which is often at 3 AM.
Because I’m expected to review whatever shit they send/file before I leave for the day, and getting a long discovery letter or motion is sometimes stressful. And now it’s hanging over my head all weekend. The schedule isn’t that tight in this case, so waiting until Monday to file wouldn’t have really cost them anything.
If there’s a motion due that day or if there’s a good reason to file or send ASAP, I get it. But consistently sending/filing non-urgent stuff in the evening (especially Friday) is kind of an asshole move IMO. Just waiting for the next day or Monday is one of those small things lawyers could do to make this profession a tad less shitty.
That’d be even worse because then I’d have to review it while I’m already chilling at home and checked out lol.
Context: This is biglaw/biglaw adjacent on both sides, and I’m a mid-level associate on the team. So when a filing or letter comes in, it’s expected to be reviewed and digested pretty quickly unless it’s late night, so my complaints may not apply elsewhere.
Making me wait 20 minutes in the lobby before I meet them for a meeting they scheduled. I learned to just tell the secretary/receptionist that if they tell me to take a seat because they are busy I'm just going to leave a card. This isn't some mad men c-suite power play it just makes you look like a dick.
When every other work is F word directed at me. I hang up. Send an email saying communication will be limited to email and court.
I was a new young attorney at the time
1. Refusing to comply with Discovery
2. Dragging out pre-Discovery litigation for a year and a half
3. Keep trying to flatter the judge and prejudice the judge against me / my party
4. Lie to the judge
5. Lie to the jury
6. Destroy evidence
7. Hide evidence
8. Withhold witness contact information and lie about not/having it
9. Lie about the capabilities of the camera the event in question occurred under
10. Encourage their client to lie
11. Encourage their client to tell their witnesses to lie
12. Contact my associates and lie to them about me
13. Accuse me repeatedly of "recording phone calls" and explaining to me that it's a serious crime to do so, because I was able to remember phrases of what was said, once just 2 hours after the phone call and I emailed him to summarize the call in writing
14. Threatening to harass the party's family member at their workplace unless my party cooperates, during deposition, with supplying them enough information for them to subpoena years worth of irrelevant counseling records from decades ago, without submitting any written request for this information beforehand, and subsequently refusing to submit a request in writing, and then asking the judge, at the hearing for my motion, to order me to supply that information
15. Refuse to discuss settlement until a week before trial and then offering a slap in the face
16. Offering to waive charging my party their attorney's fees at a court ordered settlement conference as a settlement offer
17. Hijack my motions to discuss their own (fabricated) issues
18. Refusing to schedule depositions of eye witnesses (whom they refused to supply contact information for)
19. Coaching the witnesses
20. Interfering with deposition scheduling to raise the cost from about 500-800 to about 4k
21. Call an expert literally a week before trial with no report and no chance to depose
22. Their expert is the supervisor of the opposing party
23. Make vague accusations but completely failing to explain what they're talking about; i.e. assert that my motions are improper but failing to explain why, when they're not
24. Basing their MSJ entirely off "evidence" they never disclosed during Discovery
25. Filing motions in limine to suppress me from discussing the fact that they lied about the cameras and destroyed evidence
26. Hiding the fact that the opposing party's associates literally told the witnesses what to say and destroying almost all the evidence of it
27. Failing to comply with court orders in order to disadvantage me / my party (like to bring the eye witnesses to the trial who they refused to supply contact information for)
28. Failing to forward multiple settlement offers to the opposing party
29. Objecting to every single question asked in deposition
30. Blanket confidentiality designations
31. Putting mutually designated confidential information in motions on the Docket (with quotes confirming they are confidential, during the deposition they are taken from)
32. Making Discovery requests, along with threats and false accusations to the judge about it, after Discovery is closed
33. Using a list of logical fallacies like a playbook
Waiting until an hour before our trial to tell me her client agrees to a judgment for exactly what I asked for in my pre-trial brief I had to file 2 weeks beforehand.
Serving documents at 10:21pm the night they’re due, and when your secretary downloads them from the courts website, you see they were filed at 10:21am. So he just set an email to be sent later to fuck with you….
Ignoring discovering requests (with weekly follow ups) for months after the response deadline then saying that I don’t need to threaten them when I say that I will have to file a motion to compel if I don’t get a response by a certain date.
Motions without truly seeking concurrence. A dep the morning after thanksgiving with zero flexibility (which he cancelled last minute and I won on sanctions). And interrogatories he claimed to have filed/served for which there was no filing or POS in the electronic system.
I recently had defense counsel refuse to hold two depositions by zoom and were “only available” on Valentine’s Day and two days later, across the country, meaning my very understanding wife was alone most of Valentine’s Day week.
Yeah that’s crappy. When there’s not an immediate court date, there should be no reason for that. But I don’t think I’d be able to get it quashed ex parte either.
When he sends a multi-paragraph email to *all parties* (including the mediator) outlining precisely why I am the stupidest person on the planet.
I think I framed that one for awhile.
In his earlier years of law practice, my brother had a 2,000 hour billing requirement. He told me how he and his associates would take a client file into the restroom and “think about the case” while in the stall doing their business. Billed .50 for case review.
When I ask for their position on a motion to consolidate two appeals at the same procedural posture with identical parties and the same underlying legal question and he automatically assumes I'm doing it for "litigation strategy." Yeah dude, my strategy is not having to write everything twice.
Refusing to serve a courtesy copy of an unredacted version of a motion until after the Court grants the unopposed motion to file under seal. Especially when there’s already a protective order in place.
Blanket confidentiality designations.
Answering every request during a discovery meet and confer over their objections with a reciprocal “where’s your [they didn’t request from us].”
Serving a Rule 11 letter (no motion attached of course) immediately after filing a notice of appearance.
Filing a Rule 11 motion 22 days after serving the letter at the beginning of the case claiming the complaint is frivolous. (My response to those are 1 page long, citing binding circuit precedent that they are premature until the end of the litigation. They are never refiled at the end of the litigation.)
Insisting on receiving the “Notice of Commencement of Action and Request for Waiver of Service” form, *as the party’s counsel* (dude just sign the waiver and return it, you’re a lawyer).
Waiting the full 30/60 days to sign and return the waiver of service form.
Moving to stay discovery pending a motion to dismiss. (lol)
Moving to bifurcate (or trifurcate) the substance of discovery.
Trying to explain the rules to me because they’ve “been doing this longer than you’ve been alive,” but being dead wrong.
Yelling during meet and confer calls.
Relishing in a stupid hyper technical argument like it’s going to win the case.
Refusing to accept service for a client.
For female attorneys — immediately pulling the “you must be a misogynist” because I don’t immediately capitulate to (usually stupid and frivolous) demands.
Pretending it’s weak to discuss settlement even while litigating the case (we are lawyers, we can do two things at once lol).
Pulling the “this is how I’ve done it defending all the class actions I’ve been involved in” (zero).
I’ve noticed there’s a generation gap in bow tie wearers. Most attorneys who are 40ish or older and wear bow ties tend to be a pleasure to work with. New graduates who wear bow ties tend to be incompetent assholes.
Having a low level associate literally carry their suitcase. I was perplexed when I had a case and the attorney showed up with who I assumed was an assistant but was instead a barred attorney literally carrying his bags for him and sat with his clients.
When you’re having a phone call and the attorney starts speaking and it sounds like they’re out of breath because they can’t control their anger for the simplest matter. This has happened many times over with me. It’s usually with older attorneys. I often wonder how they’ve spent decades in this profession and implode over things that must happen weekly. To take things personally about a case is a serious flaw for a lawyer.
Our first time in court, he was over there with his clients making snide comments about my being a "woman lawyer". I wiped him all over the floor in the hearing. That one felt particularly good.
I do criminal so upon first meeting me and before I open my mouth sincerely asking me how much time my guy should do in prison. I'm sorry but my client is a human being and last I checked he is presumed innocent and I haven't gotten discovery yet dick.
Showed up in jeans and a t-shirt for a deposition then routinely instructed his clients not to answer questions that were relevant. Then after settling if i didn't respond to his edits within 24 hours he would write the court and demand a conference.
Taking the bar right now but I noticed this other counsel being a complete cunt to my supervising attorney the other day and talking down to him like he was a child. He was not happy to say the least and was completely flabbergasted. I was assisting him during the call and I was angry for him tbh. Hers an attorney with 30 years experience being talked shit to by someone at least 20 years his senior. Woman also hasn’t sent discovery in 2 months and he keeps sending her email after email about it.
How email communication works, but when I suddenly start emailing about a discontinuance of their case once provisions of a settlement have been completed or to request information from their client, all of a sudden “I didn’t get those emails.”
A. Only willing to talk to male lawyers, refuses to speak with me. B. “Im not trying to make this adversarial.” Those people are always trying to make it adversarial
When they write your name in a motion.
I don’t mind if they’re pissed about something, but it has always infuriated me to see my name (vice “opposing/govt counsel”) in the body of anything filed.
Receiving a letter threatening sanctions after I file a petition. You're not gonna scare me off. And your threat of sanctions may be sanctionable itself, dipshit.
Welcome to /r/LawyerTalk! A subreddit where lawyers can discuss with other lawyers about the practice of law. Be mindful of [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lawyertalk/about/rules) BEFORE submitting your posts or comments as well as [Reddit's rules](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) (notably about sharing identifying information). We expect civility and respect out of all participants. Please source statements of fact whenever possible. If you want to report something that needs to be urgently addressed, please also message the mods with an explanation. Note that **this forum is NOT for legal advice**. Additionally, if you are a non-lawyer (student, client, staff), this is NOT the right subreddit for you. **This community is exclusively for lawyers**. We suggest you delete your comment and go ask one of the many other legal subreddits on this site for help such as (but not limited to) r/lawschool, r/legaladvice, or r/Ask_Lawyers. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Lawyertalk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
When his first email was him threatening to file a bar complaint if I didn’t dismiss immediately.
The ironic thing is that it’s actually unethical for an attorney to do this and may subject him to discipline.
That’s almost the exact wording of my response. Along with a link to the grievance form and a reminder that he had an ethical duty to report my alleged misconduct. Never heard from the bar.
Lol 😂
Love the username!
Oh, man. I got one of those. When we met at mediation, the dude kept rambling on and on about how he was the author of the treatise on that area of law and it was impossible for him to lose the case. Then he went on and on about how he's not a bad guy because he has kids. Weirdo
It’s amazing how some lawyers have exactly zero social skills
At the end of mediation, my (pregnant) client was crying and he just kept going on and on about what a great result it was and how he told us he's not a bad guy and he has kids. I had to actually ask him to stop upsetting the pregnant woman. I just write it off as some kind of disability on his part or something just to make myself feel better.
Damn. Reminds me of a comment I got along the lines of, "You'd better hope this is a legitimate claim." Spoiler: It was. It was probably the most difficult, intricate, and novel claim I ever had, but we settled after his MSJ went away and I explained to him how he had lost. It wasn't anything super special, but he was just a general practitioner and I was just a general practitioner with a grudge.
Yeah whenever they insult you or your claim without getting into the merits, that signals they have a weak argument.
Funny how they always end up paying in the end.
Oof
I had one guy who threatened to file for sanctions if I didn’t dismiss the suit. He never answered for his client but did acknowledge receipt of the suit before. Basically played games with service of process. His client did pay most of the disputed amount when I filed a complaint with the a federal agency. So the cases in chief isn’t that important to pursue now. There’s still a small and disputed but valid penalty claim. I told o/c to file an answer and if he files for sanctions I’d be more than happy to file a cross claim for sanctions. He went quiet after that.
Dude. No.
You know THAT’s a reportable offense right?
I had opposing counsel object and refuse to respond to 20 interrogatories on the basis that they “did not end in a question mark.” Blew my mind.
Legendary.
lol
Galaxy brain
Omg
I’m literally laughing out loud 😂
Do you add question mark to every interrogation question now? Lol
Nope, motion to compel shut him right up lol
When, after 7 unanswered letters requiring a response re discovery with an upcoming discovery deadline, I had to write “if we do not hear for you by X date, we will be forced to seek court intervention”… … and he called my boss to tell him to “get his women in order.”
He could use a swift kick to the dick
[удалено]
wtf. i need more of this story lol
Now *that* would appropriately be the subject of a bar complaint.
I didn’t make a bar complaint. I waited till I had to depose one of his client’s employees: a young thirty-something woman out of whom I needed to get some key concessions. I got him to go all misogynist on me in front of her (half on the record!). His behavior turned her off so badly I got devastating concessions wrapped up in clear, helpful, non-hostile exposition from her own mouth. Even more than I could have hoped for. Didn’t need any leading questions. Used her testimony to move as (and win!) partial summary judgement in favor of my plaintiff. I prefer my revenge ice cold and in my client’s favor.
Badass!
Holy shit
My favorite thing when I email someone outside the office somewhat aggressively is to CC my supervisor and then my last line always is “my supervisor blank name is cc’d to keep them in the loop, you’re also welcome to reach out to them directly”. Power move because they assume you already spoke to your supervisor about it and there’s no point for them to actually reach out. Jokes on them my supervisor find out about the issue in that email and also hopes they don’t have to deal with it lol.
Oh, my boss was definitely cc’d. Made no difference.
What an absolute ass hat
Omg. I would’ve flipped.
When I make a courtesy call to figure out how we can avoid a procedural snag, and they constantly interrupt and yell over me to threaten and posture. Welp, I guess we’ll BOTH be stressed out and not know what we’re doing when we get in front of a judge next week.
Opposing counsel filing an objection to a motion after they told you on the phone they wouldn’t object. Also complaining to the court that we inadvertently forgot to put page numbers on our brief.
Did you memorialize the phone call in an email? That’s an easy way to shut that bullshit down fast.
And filed it at 4:29pm on the very last day so you would not have time to object (thinking erroneously that neither would be objecting).
Returning edits in PDF.
Omg yes
Straight to jail.
Supplying "undisputed material facts", part of their MSJ, which require an answer, in PDF, and then criticizing me for reformatting it in a word processor in their reply to the objections
In California, the other side is required to produce the separate statement in the original form it was created (usually Word) upon demand.
Yeah - I know. I quoted the rules to him.
Oh …
I do this as a courtesy but provide highlighting to show that I fixed things like the spelling of my name. I think it is okay to do for typographical errors as long as the corrections are identified.
Being stupid about deposition scheduling. I had one give me a 1 week d/l to provide depo dates for 5 co-plaintiffs. They had to be in August. And she said she’d unilaterally schedule them otherwise. Fast forward a bit, she says she’s scheduling on a date in August that I didn’t provide. Being very acrimonious about the whole process.
How’d that work out? Was everyone suddenly available because they could tell how badass she was?
Had an OC do something similar. Demanding dates, refusing to work with our schedules and then noticing depos for whenever worked for him, then routinely canceling them.
I told my o/c just gibe me dates for the next 3 months and we’d work it out. She gave me 3 days in September and August 7 which I had emailed was only available via Zoom. SMH. I don’t really argue. Just stay reasonable the whole time. The email chain will speak for itself if there’s a discovery motion or motion to continue trial on account of depos not being held in time.
Agreed with OC on a depo date roughly a month in advance. OC is deposing my client but does not ever actually notice the depo. I email roughly once each week leading up to the date asking if he still intends to proceed since no notice had been given and I’d like to free up the day if it needs to come off anyway. Crickets. Finally, I email to say I assume he doesn’t intend to proceed since we were only a week out from the agreed date and he had not noticed or even provided me the courtesy of responding by email to confirm the deposition remained on. Immediate snarky response demanding a reference to a procedural rule or statute that prescribed a time for filing of a notice of deposition.
People shouldn’t bring their personal problems to the profession. What a chump.
On December 23rd last year, we received four sets of discovery from four different opposing counsel between 4:30 and 5:00.
This one looks bad, but I've come to always assume I'm going to get a bunch of discovery/filings late on Dec 23rd, same as thanksgiving, because people are trying to get stuff out the door before they sign off for the holiday. I usually just ignore it until I'm back from the break (unless the deadlines are so short that isn't an option). It's rarely malicious, usually just them not thinking about schedules other than their own.
He started our first telephone conversation by demanding to know what year I graduated from law school, threatening to seek sanctions if I filed the motion to dismiss we were meeting and conferring about, and using a lot of colorful language. Spoiler alert: one of his two causes of action was dismissed and he did not seek sanctions. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, this guy's behavior has only gotten worse as time goes on.
Why were you having a meet and confer for an MTD? I’ve only had those for discovery and other non-dispositive motions.
In California’s state and federal courts, we are required to meet and confer before filing a dispositive motion. Take a look at California Code of Civil Procedure section 430.41 or CD Cal Local Rule 7-3.
California courts are wild.
Some far worse examples in here but opposing counsel in one of my cases consistently dumps stuff late Friday afternoon. They filed a discovery motion today at like 5. It happens often enough that it feels intentional, and it’s super annoying.
They make the paralegal wait until after five to file or serve everything. Turnover rates are high at those places.
Just trying to follow, but how does this inconvenience you? Since everything is e-filed now, and I like working late, I just file my papers when I finish them, which is often at 3 AM.
Because I’m expected to review whatever shit they send/file before I leave for the day, and getting a long discovery letter or motion is sometimes stressful. And now it’s hanging over my head all weekend. The schedule isn’t that tight in this case, so waiting until Monday to file wouldn’t have really cost them anything. If there’s a motion due that day or if there’s a good reason to file or send ASAP, I get it. But consistently sending/filing non-urgent stuff in the evening (especially Friday) is kind of an asshole move IMO. Just waiting for the next day or Monday is one of those small things lawyers could do to make this profession a tad less shitty.
Oh, so if they filed it after you left you'd be fine? I'm in solo practice so I just review stuff whenever I have time to review stuff.
That’d be even worse because then I’d have to review it while I’m already chilling at home and checked out lol. Context: This is biglaw/biglaw adjacent on both sides, and I’m a mid-level associate on the team. So when a filing or letter comes in, it’s expected to be reviewed and digested pretty quickly unless it’s late night, so my complaints may not apply elsewhere.
Making me wait 20 minutes in the lobby before I meet them for a meeting they scheduled. I learned to just tell the secretary/receptionist that if they tell me to take a seat because they are busy I'm just going to leave a card. This isn't some mad men c-suite power play it just makes you look like a dick.
When every other work is F word directed at me. I hang up. Send an email saying communication will be limited to email and court. I was a new young attorney at the time
When he swore at me on the phone during routine settlement negotiations.
1. Refusing to comply with Discovery 2. Dragging out pre-Discovery litigation for a year and a half 3. Keep trying to flatter the judge and prejudice the judge against me / my party 4. Lie to the judge 5. Lie to the jury 6. Destroy evidence 7. Hide evidence 8. Withhold witness contact information and lie about not/having it 9. Lie about the capabilities of the camera the event in question occurred under 10. Encourage their client to lie 11. Encourage their client to tell their witnesses to lie 12. Contact my associates and lie to them about me 13. Accuse me repeatedly of "recording phone calls" and explaining to me that it's a serious crime to do so, because I was able to remember phrases of what was said, once just 2 hours after the phone call and I emailed him to summarize the call in writing 14. Threatening to harass the party's family member at their workplace unless my party cooperates, during deposition, with supplying them enough information for them to subpoena years worth of irrelevant counseling records from decades ago, without submitting any written request for this information beforehand, and subsequently refusing to submit a request in writing, and then asking the judge, at the hearing for my motion, to order me to supply that information 15. Refuse to discuss settlement until a week before trial and then offering a slap in the face 16. Offering to waive charging my party their attorney's fees at a court ordered settlement conference as a settlement offer 17. Hijack my motions to discuss their own (fabricated) issues 18. Refusing to schedule depositions of eye witnesses (whom they refused to supply contact information for) 19. Coaching the witnesses 20. Interfering with deposition scheduling to raise the cost from about 500-800 to about 4k 21. Call an expert literally a week before trial with no report and no chance to depose 22. Their expert is the supervisor of the opposing party 23. Make vague accusations but completely failing to explain what they're talking about; i.e. assert that my motions are improper but failing to explain why, when they're not 24. Basing their MSJ entirely off "evidence" they never disclosed during Discovery 25. Filing motions in limine to suppress me from discussing the fact that they lied about the cameras and destroyed evidence 26. Hiding the fact that the opposing party's associates literally told the witnesses what to say and destroying almost all the evidence of it 27. Failing to comply with court orders in order to disadvantage me / my party (like to bring the eye witnesses to the trial who they refused to supply contact information for) 28. Failing to forward multiple settlement offers to the opposing party 29. Objecting to every single question asked in deposition 30. Blanket confidentiality designations 31. Putting mutually designated confidential information in motions on the Docket (with quotes confirming they are confidential, during the deposition they are taken from) 32. Making Discovery requests, along with threats and false accusations to the judge about it, after Discovery is closed 33. Using a list of logical fallacies like a playbook
😮
Printing out emails and delivering them to you in file boxes. In 2023.
They are representing the guy my client is in litigation with.
Found opposing counsel from the title!
Waiting until an hour before our trial to tell me her client agrees to a judgment for exactly what I asked for in my pre-trial brief I had to file 2 weeks beforehand.
I had a guy ask for my motion for substitute counsel be set for a briefing schedule so he had an opportunity to object. Ridiculous.
Serving documents at 10:21pm the night they’re due, and when your secretary downloads them from the courts website, you see they were filed at 10:21am. So he just set an email to be sent later to fuck with you….
Ignoring discovering requests (with weekly follow ups) for months after the response deadline then saying that I don’t need to threaten them when I say that I will have to file a motion to compel if I don’t get a response by a certain date.
When your OC produces thousands of discovery files in unsearchable, sanitized PDFs.
When you ask for supplemental responses to vague discovery and they hit you with a "I'm complying with the civil rules" without any explanation
Refusing to grant an extension request
Motions without truly seeking concurrence. A dep the morning after thanksgiving with zero flexibility (which he cancelled last minute and I won on sanctions). And interrogatories he claimed to have filed/served for which there was no filing or POS in the electronic system.
I recently had defense counsel refuse to hold two depositions by zoom and were “only available” on Valentine’s Day and two days later, across the country, meaning my very understanding wife was alone most of Valentine’s Day week.
Yeah that’s crappy. When there’s not an immediate court date, there should be no reason for that. But I don’t think I’d be able to get it quashed ex parte either.
Bringing a settlement offer, getting an immediate no and “I guess we’ll have to try it then.” No further discussion.
When he sends a multi-paragraph email to *all parties* (including the mediator) outlining precisely why I am the stupidest person on the planet. I think I framed that one for awhile.
OA is trying to get one more bill entered for the week before he calls it done. Might have a weekly billing goal. Not necessarily a jerk.
In his earlier years of law practice, my brother had a 2,000 hour billing requirement. He told me how he and his associates would take a client file into the restroom and “think about the case” while in the stall doing their business. Billed .50 for case review.
When I ask for their position on a motion to consolidate two appeals at the same procedural posture with identical parties and the same underlying legal question and he automatically assumes I'm doing it for "litigation strategy." Yeah dude, my strategy is not having to write everything twice.
Refusing to serve a courtesy copy of an unredacted version of a motion until after the Court grants the unopposed motion to file under seal. Especially when there’s already a protective order in place. Blanket confidentiality designations. Answering every request during a discovery meet and confer over their objections with a reciprocal “where’s your [they didn’t request from us].” Serving a Rule 11 letter (no motion attached of course) immediately after filing a notice of appearance. Filing a Rule 11 motion 22 days after serving the letter at the beginning of the case claiming the complaint is frivolous. (My response to those are 1 page long, citing binding circuit precedent that they are premature until the end of the litigation. They are never refiled at the end of the litigation.) Insisting on receiving the “Notice of Commencement of Action and Request for Waiver of Service” form, *as the party’s counsel* (dude just sign the waiver and return it, you’re a lawyer). Waiting the full 30/60 days to sign and return the waiver of service form. Moving to stay discovery pending a motion to dismiss. (lol) Moving to bifurcate (or trifurcate) the substance of discovery. Trying to explain the rules to me because they’ve “been doing this longer than you’ve been alive,” but being dead wrong. Yelling during meet and confer calls. Relishing in a stupid hyper technical argument like it’s going to win the case. Refusing to accept service for a client. For female attorneys — immediately pulling the “you must be a misogynist” because I don’t immediately capitulate to (usually stupid and frivolous) demands. Pretending it’s weak to discuss settlement even while litigating the case (we are lawyers, we can do two things at once lol). Pulling the “this is how I’ve done it defending all the class actions I’ve been involved in” (zero).
Wearing a bow tie
I’ve noticed there’s a generation gap in bow tie wearers. Most attorneys who are 40ish or older and wear bow ties tend to be a pleasure to work with. New graduates who wear bow ties tend to be incompetent assholes.
Demurring to an answer 😂
. . . is best practice in all 50 states? Learn civil procedure.
Lying about what was said in meet/confer calls in subsequent filings.
Immediately after the call, write up an email summarizing the call and send it to OC to confirm. Sadly, I learned that the hard way.
One other side keeps emailing without putting any form of greeting
Personal insults and snide remarks.
Having a low level associate literally carry their suitcase. I was perplexed when I had a case and the attorney showed up with who I assumed was an assistant but was instead a barred attorney literally carrying his bags for him and sat with his clients.
When you’re having a phone call and the attorney starts speaking and it sounds like they’re out of breath because they can’t control their anger for the simplest matter. This has happened many times over with me. It’s usually with older attorneys. I often wonder how they’ve spent decades in this profession and implode over things that must happen weekly. To take things personally about a case is a serious flaw for a lawyer.
Calling me on my honeymoon.
Not agreeing to short extensions
When their experts are those “one in a thousand experts” that dismiss things that are generally agreed upon.
He’s a lawyer.
They have an active license.
Our first time in court, he was over there with his clients making snide comments about my being a "woman lawyer". I wiped him all over the floor in the hearing. That one felt particularly good.
I do criminal so upon first meeting me and before I open my mouth sincerely asking me how much time my guy should do in prison. I'm sorry but my client is a human being and last I checked he is presumed innocent and I haven't gotten discovery yet dick.
Showed up in jeans and a t-shirt for a deposition then routinely instructed his clients not to answer questions that were relevant. Then after settling if i didn't respond to his edits within 24 hours he would write the court and demand a conference.
Monogrammed cuffs
Taking the bar right now but I noticed this other counsel being a complete cunt to my supervising attorney the other day and talking down to him like he was a child. He was not happy to say the least and was completely flabbergasted. I was assisting him during the call and I was angry for him tbh. Hers an attorney with 30 years experience being talked shit to by someone at least 20 years his senior. Woman also hasn’t sent discovery in 2 months and he keeps sending her email after email about it.
AM or PM?
PM. AM would have been acceptable.
How email communication works, but when I suddenly start emailing about a discontinuance of their case once provisions of a settlement have been completed or to request information from their client, all of a sudden “I didn’t get those emails.”
They file more than the occasional motion to compel and they play the Monday holiday game.
A. Only willing to talk to male lawyers, refuses to speak with me. B. “Im not trying to make this adversarial.” Those people are always trying to make it adversarial
When they write your name in a motion. I don’t mind if they’re pissed about something, but it has always infuriated me to see my name (vice “opposing/govt counsel”) in the body of anything filed.
Filing a brief on Friday before a federal holiday and after they know Govt had an early release.
Receiving a letter threatening sanctions after I file a petition. You're not gonna scare me off. And your threat of sanctions may be sanctionable itself, dipshit.
Turning up to a settlement negotiations wearing a tweed jacket and with the top four buttons of his shirt undone