Sanctions against an attorney

Lawsuits And Disputes 2 views 1 answers
I know that in theory a court can sanction an attorney for violating rules of professional conduct, but in reality does this happen so rarely that pursuing a complaint against an attorney is usually a waste of time? Understandably, two opposing parties may have a different understanding of the facts and how they apply to the law and can pursue a good faith claim based on that. However, after a bench trial that went horribly for him, in the event that an attorney literally fabricates findings of facts and memorandum of law as if a work of fiction, are the courts likely to sanction him? To compound the mess, a judge literally cut and pasted this attorney's screed into a "decision" that bore no resemblance to evidence or law. On appeal, we are confident it will be overturned.

Attorney Answer

1
Charles Basil ·
Clearly the court didn't think the other attorney did a bad job, so that judge won't be filing a grievance against him. You object to many of the judge's findings of fact which were cut and pasted from the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law drafted by the attorney. If the judge adopted them, then the judge felt they were supported by the evidence. Therefore, filing a grievance against the attorney yourself would likely be fruitless. A judge can issue findings of fact and conclusions of law not only from the facts actually presented as evidence, but also those inferred from other facts that were proven. For instance, a fact would be that Robinson Crusoe, while walking on the beach found footprints that didn't match his. From this a judge could find the following facts: Robinson Crusoe was on the beach; Robinson Crusoe can walk; Robinson Crusoe has feet; Robinson Crusoe found footprints that didn't match his; There was another person who was on the island besides Robinson Crusoe. That all being said, the judge's discretion in finding facts, while extremely broad, can be overturned on appeal if the court thinks that based on the evidence presented the findings were an abuse of the judge's discretion. It doesn't happen often, but it is possible. Good luck.
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