Monday, January 10, 2022

Discipline for sarcastic remarks. Seriously?! Oh, wait; I could be disciplined for saying that!

The Legal Profession blog is reporting on a recent case in which the the Florida Supreme Court apparently imposed a public reprimand of an attorney because the attorney made what were deemed to be "unprofessional" and "sarcastic" remarks.  This sanctionable comments included statements saying that opposing counsel was “out of control,” and “overly hostile,” and that the upcoming depositions of two of the witnesses in a case were “going to be epic” and great “entertainment.”

If that is all there is to it, that is ridiculous!  What in the world is wrong with those statements?   Unless the jurisdiction has a very strict civility code, I fail to see why those statements, without more, deserve any type of discipline.  And if the jurisdiction has such a strict civility code according to which those statements deserve discipline, I suggest to you that the civility code is of questionable constitutional validity.   

The report makes reference to other statements which allegedly questioned the integrity of two judges, but the statements are not provided so it is difficult to evaluate the court's decision regarding those.

You can read the story (with links) here.

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