Jury Verdict Nixed as Sanction for Lawyer’s Misconduct

A district court had the right to toss a jury verdict as a sanction because of the severity of a lawyer’s “continuous, contumacious” conduct, a federal appeals court ruled Aug. 14.

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit couldn’t say that “no reasonable judge would have done the same.”

This is yet another example in recent months of that appellate court’s intolerance of misconduct by parties or their lawyers.

A roadside “melee” occurred involving Kelly Fuery, Debra Sciortino, Nicole Tomaskovic, and Chicago police officer William Szura, Judge Ilana D. Rovner wrote for the court.

The women sued Szura, other ...