TIANJIN SHOUXIN AUTOMOBILE TRADING CO., LTD. VS. DANWEN TRADING INC

Summary: Attorney Darcy Paul represents the plaintiff and he served discovery on defendant, including a request to produce documents and written questions. Paul then filed a motion to compel and sought sanctions against defendant.

However, the judge sanctioned Mr. Paul, and the Paul Law Group, $1500. The judge said the attorney made no effort to meet and confer in good faith regarding the discovey responses, and offered no authority for the right to propound duplicate document requests.





From the Judge:

Darcy Paul of the Paul Law Group is the attorney for the plaintiff.

On behalf of his client attorney Darcy Paul served a request for production of documents on defendant.

Per the judge, 90 different requests were made.

It also appears from the order that this was the third different set of document requests.

Mr. Paul brought a motion to compel supplemental responses and sought sanctions.

For document categories 1 to 6 the judge found that, according to attorney Darcy Paul's own declaration, he had made "no effort to meet and confer in good faith" to try and resolve disputes before filing a motion and involving the court.

For document categories 7 through 90 the judge found they were identical to document requests 1-84 sent in the second set of requests.

The court further noted attorney Darcy Paul had provided "no authority supporting the right to propound duplicate document requests".

There were also four written questions at-issue, and the judge granted Paul's motion to compel supplemental responses.

Turning to the issue of sanctions, the judge denied the Paul Law Group's motion for sanctions. Then the judge sanctioned attorney Darcy Paul, personally, $1500, and also his law firm. No sanctions were made against his client.



From the Court File:

It appears attorney Paul made another motion to compel. The judge granted the motion to compel, but denied the sanctions request, because the motion faled to identify any person, party or attorney against whom the sanction was sought.





Lawzilla Commentary:

We review many orders and it is rare that a judge sanctions an attorney without also sanctioning the client they represent.

In our opinion the issues Paul was apparently sanctioned for, not meeting and conferring and serving duplicate discovery requests, are basic discovery requirements, plainly stated in the law, a first year attorney would be expected to know.

Then, in another motion Paul lost the opportunity to recover legal fees for his client because the notice of motion he prepared was defective. Again, in our opinion this is very basic.

Would you hire Darcy Paul to be your attorney?

We are concerned about an attorney incurring sanctions for violating basic discovery rules.

When we found out Darcy Paul is the Cupertino Mayor we wondered if it was appropriate to be an active attorney? One could believe, at least from this case, that perhaps Mr. Paul is distracted by his political job and this is impacting his legal work.

Something to think about if you are considering hiring attorney Darcy Paul, or any attorney who has a second job being a politician.

Do you think it is appropriate for a mayor, who is supposed to be representing local residents, employers, and businesses, to also be a practicing attorney where he may be suing them? We reviewed the lawsuit that attorney Darcy Paul filed and he is representing a foreign company organized in China and suing a business in San Mateo County.



Portion of lawsuit stating Darcy Paul represents the plaintiff:





Portion of lawsuit stating he is suing a business operating in San Mateo County:





Portion of lawsuit stating he is representing a foreign business organized in China:





The lawsuit says it is based on agreements to buy automobiles in 2014 and 2015.





Now look at this - the California Secretary of State is reporting that Darcy Paul's Chinese client was NOT authorized to do business in California in 2014 and 2015. The request to do business in California was only filed in 2016, about a month before Darcy Paul filed his lawsuit, and even then it was more than a year later before the required Statement of Information was filed:





Maybe this is all legal. We do not know. But we have a lot of questions because this does not look right.

Darcy Paul was admitted to the California Bar in 2007. Bar Number 248940.

Paul Law Group, A Professional Corporation
3235 Kifer Road Suite 360
Santa Clara, California 95051

Law School: Harvard

Sanctions are Recoverable as a Judgment - Analysis of the little known fact that sanctions awarded in a lawsuit can be enforced as their own separate judgment. Surprise someone by putting a lien on their bank account, home, wages, etc.

City of Cupertino City Council Members