A Louisiana attorney and his clients have won an appeal of a trial court’s ruling finding them in contempt and issuing sanctions for impugning a plaintiff’s lawsuit in an appellate brief.

On appeal from the 21st Judicial District Court of Louisiana, the state Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturned the ruling against attorney DeWayne L. Williams of Aaron & Gianna in New Orleans, who represented three aldermen for the Village of Tangipahoa in a public records case.