The 9/11 Truthers are back in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
This week, the Second Circuit imposed further attorney sanctions on one of the lawyers in the 9/11 Truther case, while relieving another attorney of sanctions after learning that he had served a "peripheral and subordinate role" in the frivolous appeal.
Ever wonder how much the Second Circuit Court of Appeals hates frivolous claims? In October, the court not only upheld dismissal in Gallop v. Cheney, (the 9/11 Truther Lawsuit), it sanctioned the attorneys behind the case for filing a frivolous appeal.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of U.S. Army Specialist April Gallop, alleged that the Pentagon was not hit by American Airlines Flight 77 - or any plane, for that matter - but bombed by a coalition of the most senior U.S. military and civilian leaders in an attempt to implement radical changed in the government.
Class action lawsuits involve too much uncertainty to make the average, risk-adverse attorney comfortable. Discovery, alone, could continue for years, and the plaintiffs' attorney may never see a dime.
A far more profitable, albeit unethical, law firm model? Hang out a shingle as a plaintiff's attorney, and then work out a deal with the defendants your clients want to sue so that the defendants pay you to persuade the plaintiffs to drop the case.
Maybe we've been influenced by watching too many episodes of Damages, (which, if you haven't seen it, is completely amazing), but this seems like a good idea. Unless you get caught.
Attorneys are relieved when the court orders the losing party to pay their fees because it usually means that they will be paid. But what happens when the judgment awarding fees is vacated - not overturned - on appeal?
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an attorneys' fees award from judgment that was later vacated because the judgment "had brought a judicially-sanctioned, material alteration of the parties' legal relationship that had not been reversed on the merits." In case you don't have the time or energy to parse your way through that jargon, let's break this case down into English.
