Court Opinion

ID: 9668749
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:24:38.894078+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:47.876762
License: Public Domain

MAUZY, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the Court’s judgment, but write separately to outline the guidelines which I feel are necessary to explain the parameters of our decision today. Whether or not a sanction is appropriate must be determined by the particular facts of the individual case. In order to determine the appropriate sanctions in each case, the trial court should engage in a three-part inquiry. First, the trial court must resolve the question of whether the offending conduct actually constitutes an abuse of the discovery process. Second, the court must determine who is actually responsible for the offensive conduct and the extent of their culpability. Third, the court must determine what sanctions would be appropriate under the circumstances. The trial court should impose sanctions only upon those who actually abuse the discovery process and only in a manner consistent with the goals of deterring such conduct and correcting the resulting injustice. Courts must strike a careful balance in imposing sanctions. On one hand, the trial court should make clear that abuse of the discovery process is reprehensible and completely contrary to the orderly administration of justice. On the other hand, the trial court must avoid rulings that would serve to chill vigorous advocacy. In making its determination as to what sanctions would be appropriate in a particular case, the court should also consider the offending behavior in terms of the duty owed the court system. Attorneys, as officers of the court, should be held to a higher standard than others. Parties, however, should only be sanctioned for conduct in which they are actually implicated. For example, a party which, by virtue of contract, incapacity or incompetency, or the very nature of the lawsuit, has only limited control of his attorney and the course of litigation, should not be sanctioned for actions over which it had no control. Courts should strive to curb abuses of the judicial process by litigants and their attorneys, and should impose sanctions upon those who abuse the process in order to deter such misconduct. However, trial judges have an obligation, when imposing sanctions, to ensure that the punishment must fit the crime and is imposed only upon the actual offender or offenders.