Carolyn Bailey-Thomas vs. Timothy P. Mar

Summary: Joseph Bravo represents the plaintiff and his client had two recordings of doctors. Plaintiff agreed to provide the recordings but did not.

Defendant then filed a motion to compel and the court ordered production of the recordings. They were not produced. At plaintiff's deposition the recordings were still not produced, but hundreds of previously unidentified documents were, which prevented an effective deposition.

The judge issued $2655 in sanctions: $1530 for not producing the recordings as previously ordered and $1125 the time spent at an unproductive deposition. Another $1000 in sanctions was issued against the attorney in a prior discovery ruling.



From the Judge:

This is a medical malpractice lawsuit. The plaintiff had two recordings, one of the defendant doctor and one of another treating physician.

Defendant filed a motion to obtain the recordings. In response to the motion plaintiff agreed to provide them. But failed to do so.

Defendant then filed a second motion to obtain the recordings. That motion resulted in a court order for plaintiff to provide discovery responses. But again plaintiff did not provide the recordings.

Defendant noticed plaintiff's deposition. Attorney Joseph Bravo appeared with his client and over 500 pages of unidentified and unproduced documents, but apparently not the recordings. The volume of new material made it impossible to have a meaningful deposition or to complete it. Plaintiff testifed that the recordings existed.

Defendant then filed its third motion relating to the recordings and discovery conduct by Mr. Bravo and his client.

The judge referred to attorney Joseph Bravo's opposition papers in quotes - "opposition" and said the sanctions motion was effectively UNOPPOSED (the judge said this in capital letters).

First, the judge said attorney Bravo made an improper argument that defendant's motion did not provide sufficient notice.

Second, Bravo tried to require that the production of a recordings not be released to others, but he had already represented the recording would be produced The judge declined to condition the production of the recordings on an agreement by defendant not to disclose them.

Third, Joseph Bravo, Esq.'s opposition brief only addressed one of the two recordings.

The judge then ordered the prompt production of both recordings and told Mr. Bravo if they are not turned over then the defendant can file a motion further sanctions, including potential termination of the lawsuit.

Then the judge said due to the "notable history" in this case of refusing to comply with discovery $1530 in sanctions were being personally ordered against attorney Joseph Bravo as well as his client.

Additionally, due to the events at plaintiff's deposition, another $1125 in sanctions were being ordered against Mr. Bravo and his client.

The judge said the court was "very troubled" by what was happening.



From the Court File:

Reviewing the court file Lawzilla found that in connection with an earlier motion to compel discovery, referred to by the judge in his order, the court previously sanctioned attorney Joseph Bravo $1000.



Lawzilla Commentary:

The judge issued a total of $3665 in sanctions against the attorney and referred to a "notable history" of improper conduct in the case.

In our opinion this is a significant amount of sanctions.

We review many court orders and compared to other counties we view judges in Sacramento as being comparatively slow to sanction and to issue lower sanctions amounts. $3665 is an even larger award in this context.

Would you hire Joseph Bravo to be your attorney?

We are very concerned by the judge's comments. The judge used the words "toubled", "failure", "notable history" (twice) referring to the misconduct.

The massive amount of sanctions speaks for itself.

On the other hand, this is just one case and we do not know what instructions attorney Bravo was receiving from his client and who was ultimately paying the sanctions. While what the judge said should be kept in mind, it is just one case.

Joseph Bravo was admitted to the California Bar in 1983. Bar Number 107646.

Bravo Law Offices
1315 7th Avenue
San Francisco, California 94122

Law School: Boalt Hall

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 an attorney by putting a lien on their bank account, home, cases, etc.