Legal Ethics
Lawyer Fined for Client’s F-Bombs Wants Sanction Lifted
Posted May 7, 2008, 05:27 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A lawyer fined more than $29,000 for failing to stop his client from dropping variants of the F-word 73 times in a deposition is asking a federal judge to lift the sanction.
Lawyer Joseph Ziccardi of Chicago is also asking for permission to drop the client, Aaron Wider, who is CEO of a company accused of selling poor-quality residential mortgage loans to the plaintiff in the suit, GMAC Bank.
Ziccardi argues that he was not given proper notice of the sanction, imposed against both him and the client, the Legal Intelligencer reports. He also says he did not snicker at Wider’s conduct, as the judge who sanctioned him concluded in a February opinion (PDF). Instead, the snickering came from his client’s New York counsel, Ziccardi says.
The opinion by U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno of Philadelphia said Ziccardi failed to address Wider’s misconduct, empowering him to persist.
One of the incidents discussed in the opinion involves Wider throwing something of a fit when he was asked by the opposing lawyer to open a file. "I'm taking a break. F--- him,” Wider said. “You open up the document. You want me to look at something, you get the document out. Earn your f---ing money, asshole. Isn't the law wonderful?'"
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