Legal News

Swearing and ?Snickering? Take Center Stage in Philly Case

By Dan Slater

Remember the lawyer-client combo who were fined more than $29,000 because the client used the f-word (or variations thereof) 73 times during a deposition? According to the Legal Intelligencer, the lawyer, Joseph Ziccardi, whom the judge said was culpable because he “snickered” at his client’s brazen conduct, is trying to get himself off the hook.

Here’s what happened: In a 44-page opinion issued in February, Judge Eduardo Robreno found that Aaron Wider, the CEO of HTFC, a mortgage investor, engaged in “hostile, uncivil, and vulgar conduct, which persisted throughout the nearly 12 hours of deposition testimony.” As for Wider’s lawyer, Ziccardi, Judge Robreno wrote: “The nature of Wider’s misconduct was so severe and pervasive, and his violations of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure” — particularly Rules 30 and 37 — “so frequent and blatant, that any reasonable attorney representing Wider would have intervened . . .”

According to today’s story, court records show that ever since then, Ziccardi has been urging Robreno to reconsider the sanctions, arguing that he was not the lawyer who “snickered,” and that he was never given proper notice that he faced sanctions under FRCP 30 and 37.

In a footnote in his February opinion, Robreno said the video showed Ziccardi “chuckling at Wider’s abusive behavior” and that GMAC’s lawyer, Robert B. Bodzin of Kleinbard Bell & Brecker in Philadelphia, commented that “your snickering counsel is not appropriate either because all you’re doing is encouraging the behavior of your client.”

In his motion for reconsideration of the sanctions, Ziccardi says that “the ’snicker’ referenced by Bodzin in the deposition was that of Raymond Voulo, the deponent’s New York counsel.” Attached to the motion are affidavits from both Ziccardi and Voulo that say Voulo is the “counsel” who chuckled or “made some other non-verbal comment” at Wider’s offensive conduct. Ziccardi also argues that he made “significant, repeated efforts to curb his client’s behavior … in large part, off the record, as is completely proper.”

But Bodzin argues that the newly presented evidence shouldn’t change the judge’s decision. “While the video record may be unclear as to whether it was Ziccardi and/or his co-counsel, Raymond Voulo, who ’snickered,’ both Ziccardi and Voulo acted as a team in representing Wider throughout his depositions,” Bodzin wrote.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 07, 2008 (boomark / email).