The smell of an angry client sticks with a professional lawyer. Sometimes the lawyer’s rough behavior may smear a seemingly good client. If they’re lucky the lawyers can manage to look awful.
The case in point is The Travis County, Texas, defamation suit brought against conspiracy theorist of the right-wing right Alex Jones. Jones was represented in the instance by lawyer F. Andino Reynal. The jury handed down a near $50 million verdict to Jones who lied regarding Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Jones and Reynal have been dealing with the consequences of the loss. We’ve previously discussed one of the legal issues Reynal and Jones are facing. Jones faces. We will now focus on the issues that could keep Reynal awake late at midnight.
Lawyer Misconduct
We can say that Jones attorneys made two serious errors in their representation in the Travis County case. First, instead of giving the attorneys of the plaintiffs the texts that were relating only the incident of Sandy Hook, Reynal’s team offered them copies of Jones his entire telephone. The phone was not only filled with messages pertaining to Sandy Hook but also documents and other information that could be related to Jones being present in the January 6 Capitol Riot.
Inadvertent Production
In lawsuits, lawyers typically exchange documents related to defenses or claims within a lawsuit. This process, which is supervised by the court, is known as discovery. When a document is secured against disclosure through a “privilege,” such as attorney-client privilege, or irrelevant to the claim or defenses that are in dispute attorney doesn’t need to present it at discovery.
The trial, and the associated proceeding, Jones swore under oath that he had no messages pertaining with Sandy Hook. His phone’s copy proves that he was lying. If the lawyer isn’t able to convince an already skeptical judge that he was justified in his legal basis for not producing documents from the Sandy Hook texts during discovery, Jones and his lawyer are going to have to stand up and take responsibility to make up for their royal error.
Inability to claw-back
Another error made by Reynal was one of negligence. For cases involving electronic documents like text messages and emails, errors can occur. In some cases, lawyers accidentally turn over an electronic file that isn’t protected from disclosure. This is why lawyers typically are given a specific period of time (Texas provides the option of 10 days) to determine if they’ve committed a breach of trust and request to return the file. Lawyers refer to this as”claw-back. “claw-back.”
After he was given the phone number of Jones’s phone number, Mark Bankston, the lawyer representing plaintiffs, informed Reynal that he’d committed a mistake (which is the way he’s required to take care of). Reynal allowed the 10 days to slip by without exercising Jones the claw-back right. Bankston could therefore utilize the papers he was given in the manner he deemed appropriate.
They were used for great effect. In cross-examination Bankston was able to confront Jones using those Sandy Hook texts Jones swore were not real, which proved that he was lying to jurors. We’re not sure what this might have meant into the jury’s verdict as the plaintiffs requested $150 millionhowever, it wouldn’t be a benefit to Jones.
Malpractice Case
It’s not difficult to “impeach” and challenge the testimony of a witness. Witnesses make errors, forget or misunderstand, and generally exhibit a wide range of biases which influence their opinions. Lawyers expose these weaknesses in cross-examinations all the time. When it comes down to impeachment, the proof that witnesses did not lie on the stand is gold. Bankston could not have done it had Reynal was doing his work correctly.
What consequences are there? There are at least two. The first is that Jones could have a malpractice claim against Reynal. Lawyers must make use of reasonable care when representing clients. In the event that they violate this rule and their client sues them, they can be sued by the lawyer for negligence. Jones could have a difficult in proving a malpractice claim because he’d need be able to prove that the outcome in the defamation lawsuit would be different if not because of the mistakes made by his lawyer -However, Reynal might still wish to alert his insurance provider about a possible malpractice claim against the lawyer.
Ethics Investigation
In the second, Reynal may face an ethics probe from The Texas Bar. Texas lawyers are required to adhere to their own Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. First, the rule demands an attorney to give professional representation. Reynal is required to think with any of the rules (such ones that govern transparency to the court, rights of third-party individuals and so on. ) But he may be having a hard time sleeping about Rule 1.01.
If the Bar decide to probe, Reynal could face punishment that ranges from a minor warning or exclusion. The possibility is that he could be denied his legal license.
What’s next What’s Next Alex Jones?
Sanctions, bankruptcy, lawsuits and a case of malpractice Government investigations, possible criminal allegations. The evidence suggests that Jones as well as his attorney are likely to remain busy in the near time to come.
In the end, Jones may have learned that he must think before speaking.
Forgive us if we’re skeptical.