Associate Justice William W. Bedsworth of the Court of Appeal, State of California. Photographed in his office in Santa Ana, California, on May 8, 2003. Photo: Alan J. Duignan
A California appellate court has overturned a $1 million default judgment against an Orange County family lawyer finding that opposing counsel ran afoul of the requirement in the state’s Code of Civil Procedure that parties “cooperate” in bringing an action to trial or disposition.
“We are reluctant to come down too hard on respondent’s counsel or the trial court because we think the problem is not so much a personal failure as systemic one,” wrote Fourth District Court of Appeal Justice William Bedsworth in Tuesday’s 16-page published decision. “They have heard the mantra so often unthinkingly repeated that, ‘This is a business,’ that they have lost sight of the fact the practice of law is not a business. It is a profession. And those who practice it carry a concomitantly greater responsibility than businesspeople.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
