The same is true with respect to your colleagues within the bar. The vast majority of judges are going to view your motion with disfavor, and that can have lasting consequences. North Carolina is a very small bar, and word travels fast. Filing Rule 11 motions can hurt your reputation.Good luck resolving discovery disputes, agreeing to extensions of time, or engaging in productive settlement discussions with that attorney you just accused of lacking basic competency and ethical standards. Not only will your client likely bear the costs of litigating the Rule 11 motion, but the cost of the entire litigation is likely to go up now that you’ve destroyed your relationship with opposing counsel. Filing Rule 11 motions can make your client’s case more expensive.In short, filing a Rule 11 motion is risky behavior that can result in liability for you and your firm-a result that is completely avoidable if you stop and think before picking a fight. 17, 2015) (imposing Rule 11 sanctions for filing Rule 11 motion). June 29, 2007) (granting Rule 11 motion based on opponent’s Rule 11 motion) Claudet v. What is more, some of these boomerang Rule 11 motions have been successful. #Rule 11 colloquy trial384, 607 S.E.2d 337 (2005) (considering trial court’s order on Rule 11 motion filed in response to opposing party’s Rule 11 motion). Consider the boomerang effect: A Rule 11 motion often incentivizes the recipient to file a responsive Rule 11 motion or other motion for sanctions. Filing Rule 11 motions can actually result in liability for you and your firm.These may not be the reasons at the top of Mel Wright’s list, but they are excellent reasons, too. Second, and for those who aren’t persuaded by the altruistic reasons above, there are plenty of reasons to avoid filing Rule 11 motions that are purely selfish. None of us should wish this on our colleagues in the bar. Your motion is likely to trigger a gauntlet of risk management safeguards, including a conference with their firm’s general counsel or appropriate loss prevention partner, alerting their malpractice carrier, and incurring lots of non-billable time responding to your motion. Even if you believe your opposing counsel is the worst human being you’ve ever met, stop for a minute and consider what your Rule 11 motion will put them through.Likewise, if every allegation in a lawsuit required undeniable, “smoking gun” proof of its truth, the vast majority of litigation would never get filed. If every novel theory were met with a Rule 11 motion, our jurisprudence would never evolve. This can have negative effects that reach well beyond the litigants, and it can do lasting damage to the law. Filing unwarranted Rule 11 motions discourages zealous advocacy.If you’re someone who cares about the state of the legal profession, you shouldn’t want to make it more acrimonious. Every day, we have someone on the other end of our cases whose job it is to oppose us. This profession we’ve chosen is hard enough without Rule 11 motions.These are likely among the many excellent reasons why Mel Wright, the longtime Executive Director of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, doesn’t want you to file these motions. Let us explain.įirst, there are plenty of reasons to avoid filing Rule 11 motions that are purely altruistic. Why? The answer is simple: Not only do we believe in professionalism, but we’re selfish, too. They have never filed a Rule 11 motion, however, nor do they ever intend to file one. The authors of this article have been on the receiving end of a couple (unsuccessful) Rule 11 motions. Perhaps for that reason, no topic has drawn as much interest from those concerned about legal professionalism. Nothing elicits a spike in blood pressure for lawyers quite like a Rule 11 motion-both for the filer and the recipient.
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