A Manhattan law firm committed a "veritable perfect storm of mistakes, errors, misdeeds, and improper litigation practices" in trying to collect a debt from a Long Island woman.
Elman, Eltman, and Cooper was sanctioned $14,800 ($10,000 to the Lawyer's Fund for Client Protection; $4,800 to the debtor-defendant) for its shoddy response to a Nassau county, District Court Judge's order to produce the evidence upon which it bases its judgment. The firm produced a disk "containing a jumble of computer entries" that "raised more questions than it answered." It contained outdated addresses. More importantly, it failed to show that the defendant owed any money.
The court sanctioned the firm under NYCRR §130-1 for frivolous conduct and listed 18 violations of the ethics code, including an attempt to enforce a judgment "it knew or should have known was invalidly obtained" and "failing to send an attorney with knowledge of the facts" to the sanction hearing.
(Pitev, Judge Sactions Firm for "Errors, Misdeeds" in Debt Collection, NYLJ, March 8, 2010, at 1, col 5)