WHAT A HEEL!: “Slimeball” Lawyer Ridicules Loss Of Opposing Counsel’s 21-Year-Old Son In Iraq
Last month, Western Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge David R. Sweat called the conduct of Athens, GA, James W. Smith “so ignoble as to bring the legal profession in disrepute” because of this exchange with opposing counsel during two depositions in a personal injury case, which he termed a “verbal assault” that was “intended to provoke [him] on a matter of great personal tragedy,” reports the Fulton County Daily Report:
In the first deposition, taken at [Andrew]
Smith, according to the transcript, told
Mr. Smith: What's the little pin on your shirt mean? What's that little pin mean?
Mr. Marshall: It means I had a son that was killed in action serving his country. [The Army had given the pin to
Mr. Smith: So that gives you the right to browbeat my client?
Mr. Marshall: No. It has nothing to do with this deposition. …
A week later, on April 22, Marshall and Smith met again at
Mr. Marshall: We're terminating this deposition. I'll be seeking a court order requiring you to pay my attorney's fees as well as Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith: Why don't you go jump in a lake, Drew? … Where's your pin today?
Now, Atlanta attorney William G. McDaniel has filed a bar complaint against Smith, alleging that Smith violated Rules 3.3(a)(1) and 3.4 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, either of which could get him disbarred. “The idea of losing a 21-year-old son and then being ridiculed by a piece of slime, it made my blood boil. I don't care what you think about the war. I'm not so crazy about the war myself but ... you don't tell a father something like that about his son who was killed,” McDaniel tells the Fulton County Daily Report.
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