Benchslaps, Litigators

Boutique Firm Gets Benchslapped For Trying To Sneakily Evade Court's Double-Spacing Requirements

When you break the rules, you should expect to be fined.

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AngryLawyers love to hear themselves talk, even on paper, which is why word counts and page limits on federal briefs often prove to be problematic. Some lawyers, however, have tried to weasel their way around compliance with these restrictions, sometimes through the use of acronyms, and sometimes by flat-out ignoring the rules in the first place. These verbose rule-breakers often give judges an excuse to dole out entertaining benchslaps.

A prestigious boutique law firm recently found itself on the receiving end of one such benchslap, earning itself a fine for its lawyers’ attempt to craftily evade a page limit by using incorrect line spacing. The firm in question is Susman Godrey, and its lawyers apparently had so much to say in their defense of Amazon Web Services against trademark infringement and unfair competition claims alleged by CafeX Communications that they simply could not comply with either the Southern District of New York’s local rules or Judge Victor Marrero’s practice rules.

According to the local rules for the Southern District of New York, all memoranda submitted must be in 12-point font, with one-inch margins, and double-spaced. According to Judge Victor Marrero’s courtroom rules, all memoranda must comply with the local rules, and in addition, they shall be limited to 25 pages. Paying no mind to these rules, the Susman lawyers tweaked the double-spacing requirement by just a tad so they could squeeze all of their arguments into their brief.

Judge Marrero recognized Susman’s slightly less than double-spaced brief almost immediately. Law360 (sub. req.) has some additional details on what happened next:

Judge Victor Marrero said in his order that the attorneys’ 24-point spaced filing was intentional, allowing Amazon to sneak through a “substantially longer” brief than the prescribed double-spaced 25 pages.

“The flouting of this court’s individual rules was a deliberate choice by counsel for Amazon to gain some slight advantage in this litigation,” the court said.

Judge Marrero then ordered the Susman lawyers to submit a compliant brief, as well as a declaration stating the cost of filing it. Susman claimed that the cost for preparing the revised brief was $1,048.09. Of course, there had to be some sort sanction for Susman’s deliberate flouting of the rules, and here it is:

Susman Sanction

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Don’t mess with a federal judge’s spacing requirements. It’ll cost you a pretty penny — or in this case, 104,809 of them.

Susman Godfrey Fined Over Formatting In Amazon TM Suit [Law360 (sub. req.)]
Susman Godfrey is sanctioned for wrong line spacing in brief [ABA Journal]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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