Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Sunday, December 10, 2006 9:50:29 PM
This one takes the cake. Lawyers aren't supposed to coach witnesses to lie. So what happens when a lawyer accidently gives the opposing counsel a 20 page crib sheet? Quoting from a 1998 article from Reason by Walter Olson, entitled "Thanks for the Memories:"
Even more colorful developments were afoot in Dallas, where Judge John McClellan Marshall, who presides over a group of Baron asbestos cases, referred the matter to a state bar grievance committee. The Texas Rules of Professional Conduct, like those of other states, provide that, "[a] lawyer shall not...counsel or assist a witness to testify falsely." But in no time at all the bar committee dismissed the complaint. In the view of the State Bar of Texas, the memo apparently revealed no ethical violation worth worrying about. Judge Marshall, evidently nettled at the quick rejection of the bar complaint, proceeded to raise the stakes. Terming the matter "scandalous to the community as well as to the profession," and "an affront to the integrity of the judicial system," he referred it to a grand jury for possible prosecution. Baron proceeded to call Judge Marshall "a fruitcake" and fired off an official complaint against him to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Thanks to Overlawyered.com. Care to guess what Baron is doing now? He is apparently going to go to work for John Edwards' campaign.
CMBD!