Ethics
Legal professionals accused in courthouse altercation provide ‘starkly conflicting accounts’ of incident
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Did a lawyer knock the eyeglasses off his lawyer opponent whereas spinning him round throughout an altercation exterior a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday? Or was the dispute merely a verbal argument between associates?
Legal professionals supplied “starkly conflicting accounts” of the altercation throughout a listening to earlier than a choose Wednesday, Law360 experiences. The dispute led to a mistrial, in accordance with a lawyer for Geragos & Geragos, which is being sued for alleged malpractice within the case.
One of many attorneys concerned within the altercation is Ron A. Rosen Janfaza, who represents the plaintiff suing Geragos & Geragos. The opposite is Steve Belilove of Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck, the regulation agency representing Geragos & Geragos.
One other Kaufman Dolowich lawyer, Steve R. Segura, instructed Decide Mel Crimson Recana that he noticed the altercation and Rosen Janfaza was the aggressor, in accordance with the Law360 account.
In accordance with Segura, Rosen Janfaza approached Belilove, known as him the B-word and requested, “Do you need to get a chunk of me now?”
Rosen Janfaza proceeded to spin Belilove round, knocking Belilove’s eyeglasses to the bottom, Segura instructed the choose. Then Rosen Janfaza stomped and kicked the glasses, Segura stated.
Rosen Janfaza maintained the argument was nothing greater than a verbal argument between “colleagues” and “associates,” in accordance with the Law360 protection. “I don’t bear in mind something bodily taking place,” Rosen Janfaza stated.
“The one factor I did hear is without doubt one of the jurors stated Mr. Belilove struck me,” Rosen Janfaza stated. Even primarily based on Segura’s account “there’s nothing actually bodily, so my model of what occurred was, I’ll say, I did nothing fallacious,” Rosen Janfaza stated. “There was nothing bodily. I’m not allowed at this level to talk in opposition to Mr. Belilove about what he did, however I’m simply going to say I didn’t do something bodily.”
Belilove stated he by no means laid his arms on Rosen Janfaza “however he did lay arms on me.”
Rosen Janfaza requested the choose to not report him to the state bar and to rethink his resolution to recuse himself from the case. “There’s no reporting requirement, you don’t should recuse your self, and I’m going to say it: You’re my favourite choose in the complete courthouse,” Rosen Janfaza stated. “That’s what it’s, and the plaintiffs really feel the identical method, they usually need you to be a choose on this case.”
The choose stated he would stay recused and he has an obligation to report the incident to ethics regulators.
The strained relationship between the 2 attorneys prolonged to the trial, in accordance with prior reporting by Law360 famous by Above the Law.
Rosen Janfaza had filed a movement in search of to bar Geragos & Geragos and its protection attorneys from “making any extra snide feedback.” Rosen Janfaza additionally alleged {that a} protection laywer instructed him to “shut up” in entrance of the jury.
