Death Be Not True
The Illinois Administrator has filed a complaint alleging that an attorney made false representations in response to a motion for sanctions.
The attorney was assigned by his law firm to defend a personal injury action.
A motion for sanctions was filed by plaintiff’s counsel for a discovery lapse. The attorney sent unverified responses after the motion was granted.
Then
Prior to October 27, 2011, Respondent telephoned the office of [plaintiff] Jackson’s counsel and spoke to Jennifer Vermillion, a paralegal, regarding Jackson’s September 7, 2011 motion to compel…and Respondent’s failure to respond to that motion. Respondent explained to Ms. Vermillion that he had been out of the office due to his mother having been killed in an automobile accident.
On October 27, 2011, Respondent filed a response to Jackson’s motion for sanctions and for default judgment…in which Respondent admitted that he “could have done a better job responding to the discovery in this case,” but requested that Jackson’s motion be denied. In that response, Respondent made the following statements:
” 11. As Plaintiff’s counsel was told several times, on September 9, 2011, the undersigned’s single mother was killed in a violent car accident in the state of Colorado.
12. The violence of the car accident was not what killed her, instead it was the fire and smoke inhalation from the resulting conflagration.
13. She died intestate with a lease, bills, car and pets and no family in the state where she resided.
14. The undersigned was left scrambling between Indiana, Colorado and Idaho for weeks trying to get his mother buried, her estate resolved and her pets adopted.”
18. Respondent’s statements described in paragraphs 16 and 17, above were false, and Respondent knew they were false, because:
Respondent’s mother had not been killed in a car accident, nor had she been involved in a car accident at that time;
Respondent’s mother was alive; and
Respondent was not “left scrambling between Indiana, Colorado and Idaho for weeks trying to get his mother buried, her estate resolved and her pets adopted.
No report on whether the mother will be called as a witness. (Mike Frisch)