Have you ever made a regrettable error in a brief? Or seen one? What was it?
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Last week, a Michigan lawyer was fined $1,000 after profanely slamming the court in a written appeal of a contempt case.
The offending sentence: “When the judiciary acts as the bitch for the complainant, we get rulings like this.”
The lawyer’s response? “I don’t know why I said it,” MLive reported.
It can’t be often that an angry outburst will make it through the editing process of an appellate brief. Still, this week, we’d like to ask you: Have you ever made a regrettable error in a brief? Or seen one someone else made? Was it a careless error, a factual error or a regrettable written approach? What was the error? And what was the outcome of the case?
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: How have you gotten yourself out of a professional or personal rut?
Featured answer:
Posted by American of African Descent: “After a year, I set and enforced boundaries at the BigLaw Firm where I worked—no empty-calorie document review (if I review documents, I get to at least second-chair the depositions), no false deadlines … no sitting on work until the last minute, you need to be in on any weekend you expect me to work. I knew that this strategy would get me fast-tracked or fired (and probably the latter). The upshot was that I didn’t waste a whole time doing assignments that would enrich partners but do nothing for my professional development, and I got some great experiences that helped prepare me when I started my own practice five years later.”
Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
