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Judge Uses The Ultimate Insult Against An Attorney:


— November 11, 2009

She told an attorney that a pro se litigant did better work.  Ouch.

Cannon, who was a state prosecutor before being elected a judge in 1996, turned on O’Brien, saying the case was "no laughing matter" and castigating him for submitting a brief that, she said, didn’t include attorney names and was "dripping with sarcasm." "It is reprehensible," a steaming Cannon said, calling the Oct. 5 brief an editorial not fit for court.

The judge said an imprisoned pro se litigant had submitted a more appropriate brief in another case earlier that day and added that Karen Daniel, a Northwestern University School of Law professor who represents McKinney, had never submitted such a brief. O’Brien had difficulty interrupting her to call attention to the attorney names on the last page with Friedlieb’s signature.

Source: Law.com – Chicago Judge Lambastes Sidley Lawyers Over Brief

Too bad Law.com couldn’t have bothered to get a copy of the brief.  I know I for one would like to see it.



She told an attorney that a pro se litigant did better work.  Ouch.

Cannon, who was a state prosecutor before being elected a judge in 1996, turned on O’Brien, saying the case was "no laughing matter" and castigating him for submitting a brief that, she said, didn’t include attorney names and was "dripping with sarcasm." "It is reprehensible," a steaming Cannon said, calling the Oct. 5 brief an editorial not fit for court.

The judge said an imprisoned pro se litigant had submitted a more appropriate brief in another case earlier that day and added that Karen Daniel, a Northwestern University School of Law professor who represents McKinney, had never submitted such a brief. O’Brien had difficulty interrupting her to call attention to the attorney names on the last page with Friedlieb’s signature.

Source: Law.com – Chicago Judge Lambastes Sidley Lawyers Over Brief

Too bad Law.com couldn’t have bothered to get a copy of the brief.  I know I for one would like to see it.


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