Law Schools

Federal Judge Benchslaps Former Law Student: 'This Isn't A Game'

Judge is holding the line in his courtroom.

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Benchslapped-01Navjeet Singh Banga is suing his former law school, the now defunct John F. Kennedy College of Law. Banga failed two classes — torts and contracts — and as a result was kicked out of the school. Banga alleges the reason he failed was that the law school didn’t provide him accommodations for his disability. Well, more accurately that he didn’t receive the specific accommodations he wanted. The law school, through its attorney, Vince Verde of Ogletree Deakins, is contesting all of that — from whether Banga even has a disability as defined by federal law to the adequacy of the accommodations he received.

As reported by Law360:

Banga asked for a room where he could take his test by himself and not be distracted by his classmates, which he received, the lawyer for the university told the court. He was also given double the time of other students to take the tests, Verde said. Banga claims he should have been given a different room with even less distraction than the private room he received, saying if he had, he would have passed the tests.

“That’s pure speculation,” Verde said.

But Banga wanted more than special accommodations during law school — he also wants them during trial. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer allowed Banga to submit his opening statement in written form. However, Judge Breyer drew the line at allowing Banga to submit his cross examination of the law school’s Dean Edward Barbieri in writing. Banga claimed he was being disenfranchised by the law school’s trial tactics, but the judge was having exactly none of it.

“It’s not disenfranchising you. While I gave you some leeway because you’re a pro se litigant, you have to follow the rules of the court,” the judge said sharply. “This is a trial, this isn’t a game.”

Each side calls witnesses and the other side cross-examines, the judge underscored.

“I can’t short-circuit it all, just because you don’t want to do it,” Judge Breyer said. “You wanted to be a lawyer at one point.”

That’s some tough love from Judge Breyer.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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