lI have somehow managed to become counsel for a nonparty witness in a federal case. I attended a hearing with her on Tuesday where she testified that she was represented by counsel and gave my name on the record. She was thoroughly examined for over two hours, and we left after her testimony because she was sequestered from hearing the rest of the proceedings.
I'm following the case on PACER and so I knew that the court had requested additional briefing and that another hearing was set for Friday. But nobody contacted me regarding her testimony and, based on the briefings, it did not appear that additional testimony from my client was necessary to resolve the outstanding issues.
And then, this afternoon, one of the parties contacted my client to ask if she would attend Friday's hearing. I told her that his attorney needed to contact me so that we could discuss it. No call. And the more I thought about it, the less inclined I was to allow my client to be put through the cross-examination ringer again.
I came home, had dinner with the kids, watched a movie with DH, and was heading to bed at 10:45 when I saw multiple missed calls and texts from my client starting at about 9:00 tonight. The party's attorney had been calling and texting her about appearing, and was threatening to have her arrested if she did not appear!
OMG, I have never been so angry at another attorney. I immediately called him (yes, at 11:00 tonight, because he was still texting my client when I finally talked to her) and told him to immediately cease all communication with her. He informed me that he is the president of the ethics division of our state bar and that he had committed no ethical breach. Bullshit. It took me all of 30 seconds to find the rule that expressly says you can't contact someone you know to be represented by a lawyer without the consent of the lawyer. Not to mention the rule that says you can threaten people with civil or criminal process unless you have a valid basis for it. Maybe I should have informed him that I got an almost perfect score on the MPRE.
And then he kept going on and on about his 20 years of experience and how [Judge's First Name] would issue a bench warrant the moment he asked for it and that my client was obligated to return to court or be in contempt. I told him that he was awfully confident.
Anyway, I'm meeting him at court in the morning, but my client will not be there. He's pretty peeved about it, but I'm ready to fight this battle. I don't respond well to unethical bullies, and I'll be happy to point out his transgressions to the court.
1 comments:
Not that I even bothered to pay my license fee so I can practice in Federal Court, but I'm pretty sure you have to actually serve a subpoena on someone to come to court on a specific time and date in order have them arrested for not appearing. Doesn't sound like he bothered to read the FRCP either!
Maybe you can take his position on the ethics committee when he gets disbarred. :P
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