Court Opinion

ID: 9844198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:58:54.10782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:29.693612
License: Public Domain

GERBER, Judge,
specially concurring.
I write specially to emphasize not the rule we adopt in reviewing Rule 11 sanctions but rather the important holding that a defense attorney may not routinely file a perfunctory denial of every complaint. Admittedly, there are antediluvian court opinions to that effect: See Continental Sweden, supra.
These outmoded cases perpetuate the sporting view that every lawsuit should be akin to throwing Christians to lions. This view has not yet died but deserves to do so. F. Lee Bailey once wrote that a lawyer should use the rules “to frustrate the law.” Alan Dershowitz wrote recently that a good lawyer will “hide at least some of the truth.” Contrary to these views is Rule ll’s unstated premise that every lawyer is a debtor not only to the legal profession but to society at large, and this debt cannot be paid by deceptive pleadings, even when filed in the client’s best interest.
Rule 11 requires the answer to a complaint to reveal an honest, uninflated appraisal of a client’s case to the court and to the opposi*322tíon, even if such an honest revelation hurts the client.