The appeals court unequivocally sided with the law firms on all three counts, declaring that the lower court had acted “arbitrarily and outside the bounds of permissible choice” by imposing the sanctions.
“The district court’s assertion that Plaintiffs’ counsel ‘recklessly pursued their claims through trial despite the fact that they were lacking in merit,’ ‘wholly lacks support in the pretrial record,'” the panel wrote. “Rather the court affirmed the Plaintiffs had presented meritorious, triable issues …approved of Mr. Meyer’s proffered testimony in denying Empower’s summary judgment … and failed to provide any record support for its assertion that Plaintiffs inaccurately represented the limitations of Mr. Meyer’s testimony.”
$1.5M Sanction Against Schlichter Bogard : Silence on Both Sides
Remarkably, neither party was available for comment on Tuesday, leaving the legal world buzzing with anticipation about the repercussions of this remarkable decision.
The two law firms were skillfully represented by Mark Johnson and Todd Schneider of Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP, along with Michael Wolf and Jerome Schlichter of Schlichter Bogard & Denton LLP.
