Thursday, April 21, 2011

False Statements in Pro Hac Vice Application Warrant Monetary Sanction and Notification of State Bar

The court sanctioned one of plaintiff's attorneys $5,000, ordered him to file a copy of the court's order with the state bar, and barred him from filing pro hac vice applications for 3 years without Executive Committee permission where his pro hac vice application did not include information regarding a prior suspension and contempt of court finding. "[Counsel] did not himself make any false submissions to the Court [in his pro hac vice application]. But that does not absolve him from responsibility. . . . As an experienced attorney who, it appears, has practiced and filed pro hac vice applications in a number of districts, it had to have been readily apparent to [him] that he would need to submit a pro hac vice application before participating in the case in this district following transfer. . . . It defies explanation that [he] failed to look at the pro hac vice application [filed on his behalf by another lawyer] once he was on notice that it had been filed without his express authorization. . . . [He] ought to have stepped up to the plate and accepted some level of responsibility in his own affidavit. He did not do so."

The Irrevocable Trust of Anthony J. Antonious v. Tour Edge Golf Manufacturing, Inc., 1-10-cv-05552 (ILND April 17, 2011, Order) (Kennelly, J.)

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