Last week’s Tip about applying for sanctions gave rise to some excellent comments.  Please excuse this relatively long Tip, but an email I received from Grace Casas, experienced Miami-based litigator is well worth sharing:

I usually enjoy these tips but I did not particularly like today’s.  Lawyers should not be encouraged to request sanctions in the form of attorney’s fees and sanctions without understanding the full consequences of such a request. I have seen too many lawyers have their own definition of what “extreme” means in order to justify what amounts to a consistent pattern of using requests for sanctions as form to bully the other side into conceding.  There is a considerable problem with civility in the legal profession and encouraging lawyers to file for sanctions contributes to the problem in my opinion.

When lawyers start becoming abusive during a deposition and refuse to show civility or abide by the rules, what I have seen that works best is to stop a deposition and file a motion to put in guidelines as to how the deposition will be conducted going forward.

Thank you, Grace.