Lawyer, Client Sanctioned $29K for Client's Profanity-Laced Deposition
U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno of Philadelphia has tallied the number of times a litigant dropped the F-word or a variant in a deposition—it was 73 times—and calculated the sanction he and his lawyer should pay—it is more than $29,000.
The client, Aaron Wider, is CEO of HTFC Corp., a company accused of selling poor-quality residential mortgage loans to the plaintiff in the suit, GMAC Bank. He is represented by Joseph Ziccardi of Chicago.
Wider not only used vulgarity, his conduct was hostile and his answers were evasive or obstructionist, the judge said, according to a story by the Legal Intelligencer. At one point in the deposition Wider referred to the opposing lawyer as a “f— face” and at another as an asshole.
Wider “sought to intimidate opposing counsel by maintaining a persistently hostile demeanor, employing uncivil insults, and using profuse vulgarity,” Robreno wrote in his opinion (PDF). And his lawyer was at fault for failing to restrain him, Robreno said, noting that a video shows him “chuckling at Wider’s abusive behavior.”
“Ziccardi’s failure to address, then and there, Wider’s misconduct could have no other effect but to empower Wider to persist in his behavior. Under these circumstances, the court equates Ziccardi’s silence with endorsement and ratification of Wider’s misconduct,” Robreno said.
At one point, Wider threw something of a fit when the lawyer asked him to open a file, the opinion says. “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?’”
Robreno said the opposing lawyer, Robert Bodzin of Philadelphia, “exercised great restraint” in response to Wider’s attempts to incite him.
