Legal Commentary

A Tip for Lawyers

By Eugene Volokh

Try to avoid behavior that leads judges to officially castigate you in their court opinions. From Sullivan v. Chappius, No. 09-CV-6178L (W.D.N.Y. May 4, 2010):

It appears that the reason why the complaint here alleges that plaintiff?s speech was protected under the First Amendment, even though it does not assert a claim under the First Amendment, is that plaintiff?s attorney has repeated, verbatim, most of the factual allegations in the complaint in the DOCS action. The reason for the references to other statutes with no relevance to this case, such as Title VII and the FLSA, remains a mystery, but probably all such references are attributable to what Judge Siragusa aptly described as ?Ms. Agola?s ?copy and paste? document preparation method,? 2009 WL 3189869, at *7 n. 18, which apparently involves lifting and reusing parts of pleadings and other papers from unrelated cases, without bothering to check to make sure that they are accurate and relevant to the case at bar.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).