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Attorney Perjury

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medprobe

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?NY

In a small claims action, the attorney representing the defendant asks the plaintiff to produce documents that were authored by defense counsel. Plaintiff objects stating that if he needs copies of these documents, they should have been subpoenaed. The attorney states that the documents that he authored were destroyed in a fire and therefore unavailable. The judges permits the entry of copies held by plaintiff into evidence. Plaintiff has reason to believe that these documents were never authored by attorney despite the fact that he states that they were.

It was later discovered that there was never a fire as stated by the attorney. Does the plaintiff have any recourse against the attorney for perjury, sanctions, etc?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


Just Blue

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?NY

In a small claims action, the attorney representing the defendant asks the plaintiff to produce documents that were authored by defense counsel. Plaintiff objects stating that if he needs copies of these documents, they should have been subpoenaed. The attorney states that the documents that he authored were destroyed in a fire and therefore unavailable. The judges permits the entry of copies held by plaintiff into evidence. Plaintiff has reason to believe that these documents were never authored by attorney despite the fact that he states that they were.

It was later discovered that there was never a fire as stated by the attorney. Does the plaintiff have any recourse against the attorney for perjury, sanctions, etc?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Awww...Come on! You need to do your own homework!
 

latigo

Senior Member
(First, ignore b. m.’s rude remark about doing your own homework. All one needs to do is read the stupid postscript to the response to realize that this person trips in an illusory world.)
______________

That said, now tell me if I’ve got anything at all clear about this tale.

You file a pro per claim in a New York small claims court. The defendant appears with a lawyer. Which is okay in New York, but not in most civilized states.

(Lawyer practicing in small claims obviously living on the street and wanted to get in out of the cold.)

During the hearing the defendant’s lawyer asks you to produce some documents. And this is where it gets hazy because why would you the plaintiff have “documents that were authored by defense counsel”?

And the clouds thicken even more where you recall that the lawyer tells the judge that the “documents that he authored were destroyed in a fire and therefore unavailable”.

Then where the hell did the lawyer get the copies of the documents he authored that the ignorant judge allowed him to introduce into the record if they were supposedly destroyed in a friggin fire?

They didn’t come from your file. Not according to what you’ve written: “The judges permits the entry of copies HELD BY THE PLAINTIFF.” into evidence.

Anyway the judge had no business allowing those documents in the record, as substitutes for those accidentally destroyed or not.

If they came from the pen of the opponents attorney that had to be not only totally inadmissible as hearsay, but had to be self-serving, prejudicial and of no legitimate probative value.
_____________

But your questions are: (1) Can the lawyer be charged with perjury in falsely telling the judge that the documents were accidentally destroyed.

The answer to that is no. The lawyer was not under oath and the New York Penal Code section 210.00 et seq. defines all three degrees of the crime of perjury as “a false swearing under oath.”

(2) Can the lawyer be subjected to sanctions? Technically yes - by the New York Bar Association and the New York
Supreme Court.

I gathered you came up short in small claims and hopefully you filed a timely appeal where you’ll see no more of this idiot judge that wouldn't now the rules of evidence from a Sears tool catalog.
 

medprobe

Junior Member
Thank you for your kind response.

Believe it or not, after 2 1/2 hours of trial, the case is not over. The judge asked both myself (pro se - Plaintiff) and defense counsel to place in writing additional arguments that we want heard by April 1st.

Under my object, the judge permitted the documents in question to be placed in evidence and made copies of said documents for defense counsel and gave the copies to defense counsel.
 

latigo

Senior Member
What are the issues that seem to have so perplexed and confounded his or her “Honor” that require written argument? Care to mention them? I just accidentally might be of some help.

It would seem that you have an overly officious judge that is vitiating the whole legislative intent to provide a simplified, expeditious, informal small claims process!
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
It would seem that you have an overly officious judge that is vitiating the whole legislative intent to provide a simplified, expeditious, informal small claims process!
Strange - I thought the OVERRIDING intent of ANY court is JUSTICE...not just expeditious resolution and accuracy be damned...
 

latigo

Senior Member
Would this help, zig?


Utah:

“These rules constitute the simplified rules of procedure and evidence in small claims cases required by the Utah Code. They are to be interpreted to DISPENSING SPEEDY JUSTICE BETWEEN THE PARTIES". (Emphasis mine)

Preamble to Utah’s Rules of Small Claims Procedure from the Utah Court Rules Annotated

California:

“Small Claims Court is designed to be SIMPLE, QUICK, and cost less than a regular Civil lawsuits.” (Again my added emphasis)

Los Angeles Superior Court information sheet in re small claims court.

And in New York where our OP is struggling with a small claims judge that is struggliing even more:

“The Small Claims Court provides an inexpensive and SIMPLIFIED process for litigants to resolve their legal problems involving cases of small amounts of money. . . . Whether you are a claimant or a defendant, the Small Claims Court is dedicated to providing access to fair and EFFICIENT justice. . . “

Fern A. Fisher, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge, New York City Court
 

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