Anna Kyungja Kim v. HSBC Bank USA

Summary: Attorney Steve Barkin represented the plaintiff. Defendant filed multiple motions relating to discovery that plaintiff had not filed and the judge issued a tentative ruling imposing $1710 in sanctions.

Before the hearing Barkin dismissed the lawsuit and prevented a final order from the judge.



From the Judge:

This is a wrongful foreclosure case where attorney Steve Barkin represented the plaintiff. In this lawsuit the defendant served discovery on Steve Barkin, Esq.'s client. This included requests for admission, requests to produce documents, and written questions to answer.

Attorney Barkin's client did not answer any of the discovery.

Defendants then filed three motions to compel responses.

In a tentative ruling the judge said no opposition to the motion was made, and in addition to granting the motions requiring responses to discovery, monetary sanctions of $1710 seemed appropriate against Barkin's client.



From the Court File:

Lawzilla reviewed records available online and found that at roughly the same time Barkin's opposition to the motions was due - instead of providing discovery responses, or opposing the motions, he dismissed his client's lawsuit.



Lawzilla Commentary:

We do not know the reason for the dismissal, but in our opinion what was happening was Steven Barkin knew sanctions were coming againt his client and he tried to cut them off.

Speculation on our part is this was an impetus to settle the case and avoid a large amount of sanctions from being imposed.

Steven Barkin was admitted to the California Bar in 1980. Bar Number 91575.

LAW OFFICES OF STEVEN J. BARKIN
3700 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 940
Los Angeles, California 90010

Law School: Illinois IT Chicago-Kent

Would you hire Steven Barkin to be your attorney?

It is unknown why the plaintiff did not answer any discovery, but we consider it a good legal tactic to either settle a case, or simply dismiss it, to avoid substantial sanctions from being imposed against a client.

Attorney Steve Barkin has been disciplined by the California State Bar five times.

Three times Mr. Barkin has been suspended for failing to pay his bar dues.

He was suspended a fourth time for misconduct in 19 cases including:

- Misappropriating client money in trust

- Using money in a client trust account to pay personal expenses

- Not paying liens to medical providers

- Not communicating with clients

- Making misrepresentations to clients

- Bouncing checks from the client trust fund

In a fifth incident he misappropriated more than $13,000 in client money from settlement payments instead of using it to pay his clients medical bills.

The last incident occurred almost 20 years ago.