The judge has ruled against your client on every pretrial motion, including your motion for recusal and your opponent’s motion for sanctions. Could the judge be biased against you or your client? You will have to show more than adverse rulings to disqualify the judge for bias.

In Watkins v. Smith, the plaintiff, a non-lawyer authorized to represent clients before certain administrative tribunals, was recorded offering to waive a client’s fee in exchange for a romantic or sexual relationship. When the non-lawyer received a letter from his now-former client’s attorney offering to settle a sexual harassment claim based on the recording, he sued the former client and her attorneys for racketeering, anti-trust violations, and other claims. He alleged that the defendant attorneys had used the former client as an “operative” to trick him into making the recorded statements as part of a conspiracy to compete unfairly with his business.

The trial court made several rulings adverse to the plaintiff, including dismissal of the complaint, sanctions for frivolous pleading, and denial of the plaintiff’s motion for recusal for bias or lack of impartiality under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a). The statute requires disqualification when a federal judge’s “impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or if he or she has “a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party.” The plaintiff appealed those and other adverse rulings, arguing that the trial judge had exhibited bias and lack of impartiality as a result of racial and economic prejudice, dishonesty, senility, and fraud.

Read original article


Tags: