Florida Federal Court Imposes Sanctions for Profanity and Unprofessionalism
Three depositions, two lawyers, and one court reporter…what could go “wrong?” Apparently, conduct by all three that included one lawyer telling the other lawyer to, “Shut the f*** up.”
The dispute seems to have exploded after one lawyer, Mr. “K” objected to the use of the court reporter at the first deposition. Mr. K believed that the court reporter had not accurately transcribed a recent deposition in another case in which both counsel were involved.
Nonetheless, even after Mr. K initially suspended the first deposition to seek court intervention (after which both counsel told the court a hearing was unnecessary because they had resolved the dispute) opposing counsel Mr. “A” retained the same court reporter for all three depositions in the current case.
Mr. K and Mr. A engaged in repeated exchanges that the court found to be unprofessional and unnecessary; the court characterized the conduct as “– shenanigans that reasonable and professional attorneys do not engage in.” The court deemed Mr. A’s profanity “clearly unprofessional and …unacceptable. Indeed, continuation of such conduct could be grounds for a referral to the Florida Bar or for further professionalism training.”
Ultimately, the court found both counsel and the court reporter’s conduct lacking in professionalism and because it was Mr. K’s motion the court sanctioned Mr A. by requiring him to write off all of his time related to the deposition disputes including, but not limited to:
The time spent:
(1) on his emails to the Court;…
(2) at the April 28, 2021 hearing;
(3) conferring with …[opposing counsel]and filing a notice of
compliance;
(4) on the response to the Motion;
(5) listening to the deposition
recordings and reviewing the deposition transcript;
(6) on the Notice of Compliance ;
(7)on Defendants’ Notice Pursuant to Court Order; and
(8) on the motion to strike .
However, Mr. K is not off the proverbially hook as the court encouraged him to exercise his billing judgement to write off time related to the dispute and indicated that if the Mr. K’s client prevails and there is a fee request, that the court will not hesitate to exercise its judgment regarding Mr. K’s fees.
Read the order here, courtesy of the ABA Journal’s coverage.
Easy take away here: Don’t personalize zealous representation such that it devolves into unprofessional, sanctionable conduct.
For our other recent coverage on the perils of incivility click here.
