Court Opinion

ID: 9434859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:58:42.566148+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:51.282262
License: Public Domain

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join the court’s opinion, and make a further observation. One of the many remarkable aspects of this case is that one of the government’s lawyers called himself as a witness in the district court and then proceeded to write and sign a brief to this court. The lawyer acted, I am sure, in good faith; but as a result of his dual status, our task has been hampered throughout by the need to sift his sworn testimony in the district court from his unsworn testimony in his brief. Pro se cases excepted, counsel should avoid this sort of thing. Once a lawyer gets into a case as a witness, he ought to get out of it as an advocate.