A Chicago attorney is seeking to vacate a discovery sanction of more than $29,000 by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of Philadelphia. And, in light of the sanctions, the attorney, Joseph Ziccardi, is also seeking to withdraw from his representation of Aaron Wider, the CEO of HTFC Corp.
Wider apparently made a shambles of his deposition. Over 12 hours of testimony, on two different days, Wider 'dropped the F-bomb' 73 times and was, according to the sanctions order, otherwise hostile and uncooperative. Ziccardi is faulted by the court for failing to rein his client in or, if that proved impossible, failing to adjourn the deposition.
Debra Cassens Weiss also has a post about this on ABAJournal.com. I saw a reference to this story earlier this week in the print edition of the ABA Journal.
Read the entire lengthy order imposing sanctions here.
Usually, lawyers are cautioned against coaching their witnesses in depositions; the witness is supposed to testify, not the lawyer. But this was apparently a case where the witness wasn't testifying -- and the court determined that the lawyer should not sit idly by while the client berated and abused his interrogator. The court found that the lawyer's failure to attempt to assert control made the lawyer complicit in the client's out-of-control conduct.
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