L E G A L LY W E I R D By: Lisa J. Hall Hodges, Doughty & Carson
HOLE LOT OF FAKING GOING ON It has been a bit of a slow news cycle in the News of the Legally Weird, unless you want to ponder what causes of action Chris Rock may have against Will Smith and/or the Academy (Did you hear what happened at the Oscars?) or what questions Donald Trump may be asked in his deposition in the lawsuit filed by Eddy Grant for his alleged unauthorized use of “Electric Avenue” in a campaign ad in 2020 (Oh no!). So, today we are throwing it back to 2009, when Florida attorney Bill Bone was so tired of his adversary Michael Robb’s trial antics that he filed a Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial. The parties were scheduled to go to trial over a 2002 motor vehicle accident, and Mr. Bone was trying to get ahead of Mr. Robb and have the court rule before it was too late, lest the jurors see the compromised shoes. It is like a motion in limine, but for wardrobe choices instead of evidence! Some excerpts from the motion: • It is well known in the legal community that Michael Robb, Esquire wears shoes with holes in the soles when he is in trial. • Upon reasonable belief, Plaintiff believes that Mr. Robb wears these shoes as a ruse to impress the jury and make them believe that Mr. Robb is humble and simple without sophistication.1 • Throughout the discovery of this case, Mr. Robb’s clear strategy has been to attack the credibility of the Plaintiff and his counsel by suggesting that Plaintiff is faking his injuries and exaggerating his claims and demanding more compensation then (sic) he deserves because Plaintiff is greedy. • Part of this strategy is to present Mr. Robb and his client as modest individuals who are so frugal that Mr. Robb has to wear shoes with holes in the soles. Mr. Robb is
known to stand at sidebar with one foot crossed casually beside the other so that the holes in his shoes are readily apparent to the jury who are intently watching all counsel and the Court at that moment. • Then, during an argument and throughout the case Mr. Robb throws out statements like “I’m just a simple lawyer” with the obvious suggestion that Plaintiff ’s counsel and the Plaintiff are not as sincere and down to earth as Mr. Robb. The court denied the motion in haberdashery, and the trial proceeded. The jurors were, of course, instructed not to read any outside information about the case. The Palm Beach Post published a column about the motion, which one of the jurors read and then shared with the other jurors. The judge found out about the juror misconduct and felt compelled to declare a mistrial, even though the jurors denied that it had influenced them in any way. However, the judge waited until the jurors deliberated and reached a decision before he told them about the mistrial, resulting in an “advisory verdict” only. The plaintiff learned that the advisory award was $2.2 million. Three months later, they tried the case again. Mr. Robb wore the same black tasseled Cole Haan loafers (with a two-inch round hole in the sole) but had witnesses appear in person instead of on video, as they had in the first trial. The shoes were able to convince the jury that the plaintiff ’s injuries were pre-existing, and as such, the plaintiff received nothing. Perhaps the jury found some holes in the plaintiff ’s story, but the more likely answer is due to Mr. Robb’s membership in a very exclusive Sole Society, with his best friends Cinderella and Dorothy Gale.
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Holes in the soles? Shoes as a ruse? Mr. Bone was practically daring Mr. Robb to file a Motion for Injunction against using Poetry in Advocacy.
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U.S. Army, supra n. 6. Quartermaster Foundation, Quartermaster Medal of Honor Recipients (Apr. 10, 2017), https://www.quartermasterfoundation.org/article/quartermaster-medal-ofhonor-recipients, last visited Apr. 8, 2022. Id. Dr. Steven E. Anders, Cook Under Fire, Quartermaster Professional Bulletin (Spring 1998), available at http://www.seabeecook.com/cooks/army/gibson.htm. Id.; see also Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Stories of Sacrifice, Eric G. Gibson, https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/eric-g-gibson, last visited Apr. 9, 2022. B rations are meals prepared in the field kitchen, usually from canned or other preserved foods. These are distinguished from A rations, which are usually prepared from fresh and frozen food, and MREs, which are field rations. For more information, visit Military History Fandom at https://military-history.fandom. com/wiki/B-Ration#:~:text=B%20ration%20(or%20Type%20B,adequate%20 refrigeration%20or%20freezer%20facilities. Anders, supra n. 10. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, supra n. 11 Anders, supra n. 10. Id. Army History, Anzio 1944, available at https://history.army.mil/brochures/ anzio/72-19.htm. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, supra n. 11
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too/?variant=15bc93f5a1ccbb65. See Catherine Powell, How #MeToo Has Spread like Wildfire Around the World, Newsweek (Dec. 15, 2017), https://www.newsweek.com/how-metoo-has-spreadwildfire-around-world-749171. See Kantor & Twohey, supra note 1. See id. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-1-108. Id. Id. See id. at § 50-1-304. See 26 U.S. Code § 162(q). Internal Revenue Service, Certain payments related to sexual harassment and sexual abuse (2021), https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/certain-payments-related-to-sexualharassment-and-sexual-abuse#:~:text=For%20amounts%20paid%20or%20 incurred,subject%20to%20a%20nondisclosure%20agreement. Public Law 117-90 (Mar. 3, 2022); see also Emily T. Patajo, President Biden Signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, The National Law Review, (Mar. 8, 2022), https://www.natlawreview.com/article/ president-biden-signed-ending-forced-arbitration-sexual-assault-and-sexual. See ABA House of Delegates, Resolution 300 (2018), https://www.americanbar. org/content/dam/aba/images/abanews/2018-AM-Resolutions/300.pdf; Amanda Robert, ABA House urges legal employers not to require mandatory arbitration in an expanded variety of claims, ABA Journal, (Jan. 28, 2019), https://www.abajournal. com/news/article/resolution-107b.
May 2022
