http://ow.ly/6E67R
Article by Lisa Provence on the readthehook.com website.
This article discusses a case in which an attorney advised his client to "clean-up" his Facebook page after receiving a discovery request. The author states, ""Don't worry about sanctions," attorney Matt Murray wrote in an email to his client, Isaiah Lester, which was read in opening and closing statements by opposing counsel. "If we get sanctioned, after the trial, you'll have plenty of money to pay it.""
As the article states, "On March 26, 2009, according to the judge's order, Murray came up with a scheme to take down or deactiviate Lester's Facebook account so that he could respond that he had no Facebook page on the date the discovery request was signed.
When defense attorneys filed a motion to compel, Murray instructed Lester to reactivate the account. But in a December 16, 2009, deposition, Lester denied deactivating the account.
Murray is also accused of withholding the email from Smith instructing Lester to clean up his Facebook page when he was ordered to produce it shortly before the trial began. Murray falsely claimed after the trial that the omission was the paralegal's mistake, according to the court order."
There is now an unresolved dispute regarding the attorney fees that are being sought to support the motion for sanctions, and if the fees are reasonable. The defense counsel is seeking that the sanctioned plaintiff's attorney pay for their attorney fees, and the fees are alleged to be excessive by the opposing attorney.
P.S. Don't play games with discovery requests seeking production of ESI.
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