An electronics distributor, represented by the law firm of Berliner Cohen, has been slapped with a $4,800 fine for pursuing wildly irrelevant discovery requests as it prepares to go to trial over alleged wage and hour violations. I certainly hope that the sanctions were against the law firm that issued the discovery requests, but from the wording of the article, it appears that the sanctions were only against the client. From my perspective, it matters a great deal who is ordered to pay the sanctions, not just that sanctions are ordered to be paid. Lawyers and law firms must be held accountable for their bad behavior AND I seriously doubt that $4,800.00 even covers the legal fees and costs incurred in pursuing those sanctions. Of course, judicial officers contribute to such bad behavior because they very rarely even order sanctions in an amount required to make the injured party whole. Furthermore, attorneys are required to self-report the imposition of judicial sanctions against them of $1,000 or more. Such incidents may affect their license to practice law and therefore judges are rather reluctant to issue them. Maybe if judicial officers were less reluctant, lawyer behavior might actually improve. Imagine that! The above quote is from an article by Emily Green titled Company to pay fine for abusing discovery that was published in the December 19, 2014 edition of the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 18:06:19 +0000
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