On July 25, 2016, the Washington District Court –using its inherent power to sanction – fined Defendant’s attorney for failing to rely on new rules.
According to the Court, Defendants “proceeded to misstate the law” in their reply brief on the motion to compel by citing case law “that analyzed the version of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1) that existed before the highly publicized amendments took effect on December 1, 2015”. According to the Court, the attorney was in bad faith since the Court itself had highlighted at a hearing how the amendments “dramatically changed what information is discoverable…The court therefore found inexplicable Mr. Ryan’s citations to outdated caselaw and concluded that misrepresentation also warrants sanctions”. The Court awarded Plaintiff $41,370.00 in attorney’s fees and $2,102.77 in costs.
Fulton v. Livingston Fin. LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96825 * (W.D. Wash. July 25, 2016) is available at http://www.ediscoverylaw.com…