In a jam – toe and traffic

If you’re having “one of those days” and totally frustrated, think how you’d feel if caught in China’s massive traffic jam could last for weeks or confronted with the question: Will Footsies During a Deposition Lead to Sanctions?

Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 60 miles long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say…

In the worst-hit stretches of the road in northern China, drivers pass the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors. Many of the trucks that carry fruit and vegetables are unrefrigerated, and the cargoes are assumed to be rotting.

On Sunday, the eighth day of the near-standstill, trucks moved less than a mile on the worst section, said Zhang Minghai, a traffic director in Zhangjiakou, a city about 90 miles northwest of Beijing. China Central Television reported Tuesday that some vehicles had been stuck for five days.

No portable toilets were set up along the highway, leaving only two apparent options – hike to a service area or into the fields. But there were no reports of violent road rage, and the main complaint heard from drivers was about villagers on bicycles making a killing selling boxed lunches, bottled water to drink and heated water for noodles…

The main reason traffic has increased on this partially four-lane highway is the opening of coal mines in the northwest, vital for the booming economy that this month surpassed Japan’s in size and is now second only to America’s…Although wages remain generally low, auto ownership and gridlock have grown so commonplace that Inner Mongolia authorities restrict cars’ movement to alternate days, based on odd or even numbers in their license plates.

Do you suppose the Brown Sims attorney who found himself in a toe jam has odd numbers on his license plate?  Above the Law has the story:

It all started in July, when Florida law firm Rasco Klock sent a paralegal to Wilmington for a deposition. The firm is representing a plaintiff suing an insurance company, but one of their lead attorneys, Juan Carlos Antorcha, had to remain in Miami and conduct the deposition by video, with the paralegal handling the exhibits in person.

During the deposition of a witness for the defense, a strange noise caught the attention of the Perceptive Paralegal. After hearing clicking, he peeked beneath the table and saw a defense attorney’s foot tapping the foot of the deponent. He snapped a photo with his smartphone and sent it to Antorcha, who confronted the defense and halted the deposition. Rasco Klock then filed a very angry motion for sanctions, accusing the defense attorney of coaching the witness through foot tapping…

The lawyer accused of foot-tapping is Brown Sims shareholder Kenneth Engerrand. On every single page of the 13-page motion for sanctions against him is the incriminating footsie photo…

Here’s the photo:

The Florida lawyers write:

How can INA justify this petty, irresponsible, unethical, and dishonest behavior and just launch a barrage of detritus unbecoming of anyone who has taken an oath as a lawyer. Look at the materials contained on the second page of INA’s response as INA talks of the “foot brushing” caused by the close quarters under the table. Compare that to the photo, about which INA was unaware, that speaks volumes about INA’s candor and truthfulness with the Court. What one sees is not close quarters, ones sees a Rosemary Wood-like stretch of Mr. Engerrand’s foot, as he apparently repeatedly taps the foot of the witness while questions are being asked.

INA’s answer to this really bad acting is to assault the plaintiffs for “once again manufactur[ing] a controversy.” There is nothing to discuss. What needs to be done is that the deposition needs to be re-taken with a bundling board installed between whoever INA sends this time to take the deposition of Ms. Dennis as well as this Court’s determination of how INA is to be punished…

Some depositions are boring. Some are exciting. Some are really weird. Regardless, sound advice is not to put your foot in your mouth… or on the deponent.

Motion for Sanctions Due to Foot Tapping (Part 1 of 2)
Motion for Sanctions Due to Foot Tapping (Part 2 of 2)
Response to Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions

Have a good day!