In a scathing opinion reviewing plaintiff's lawyer's fee request in DeVore v. City of Philadelphia (Civil Action 3598, February 20, 2004), Magistrate Judge Jacob P. Hart of the District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania tore apart the many typos and other errors in the lawyer's written work. And a tip of the hat to the Legal Writing Prof Blog for this reference. The lawyer, Mr. Puricelli, constantly referred to the court as the "Easter District" of Pennsylvania:
Throughout the litigation Mr. Puricelli identified the court as "THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTER [sic] DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA." Considering the religious persuasion of the presiding officer, the "Passover" District would have been more approriate. However, we took no personal offense at the reference. . . .
Among numerous other errors, the lawyer's bills included hours spent "participating in medication." Mediation was probably what he meant. The court agreed with the defendants that "Mr. Puricelli's written work is careless, to the point of disrespectful," and that it is "vague, ambiguous, unintelligible, verbose and repetitive."
The court substantially reduced the lawyer's fees. Download the opinion here: Devore.pdf.
