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Pleading full of typos gets fee cut by 75% in § 1983 case

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A sloppy pleading seeking attorney's fees after a civil rights jury vereict, full of typos and misquoting federal rules, resulted in a federal judge cutting the attorney's fees award that the pleading sought by about 75%. See Law.com. The pleading included a cut and paste from another document without correction of names. In an interview, Puricelli said, "I have my faults," that he relies too heavily on spell-checking software, and that "sometimes I don't proofread enough." But Puricelli also explained that his original filing, which he agreed was riddled with typos, was the result of a filing error. Using the court's electronic filing system, he said, he had accidentally filed a "draft" version that had not been proofread. (Then the judge had a name mistake in the order...continue to full post

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).