Divorcing couples who want to use their attorneys as a weapon of mass destruction to belittle and harass the other side, beware.
Her arrogant attorneys' rants cost her over $400,000!
A new published case from the First District Court of Appeal titled “Marriage of Davenport” (2011 S.O.S. 2343) (Cal.App. 5-4-2011), filed May 4, 2011 took to task a young lawyer whose poison pen letters to his opponent backfired after he filed a motion for sanctions. This is a mistake you must avoid.
In the end, his client was the one who was ordered to pay $100,000 in sanctions and over $300,000 in attorneys’ fees for his bad behavior!
The young, inexperienced attorney wrote mean spirited, nasty letters in which he degraded the integrity of his opposing counsel, accused them of being dishonest, and insulted them in numerous other ways. The trial court wrote a 31 page Statement of Decision stating why the court was ordering his client to pay sanctions and fees to her husband’s attorneys. The Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s sanction order. In so doing, the court gave the following reasoning for admonishing the young attorney who wrote abusive, rude, and/or hostile correspondence to his client’s husband’s attorneys:
“Beyond all that, there is evidence of Andrew Watters’ treatment-more accurately, mistreatment- of his opposing counsel in his correspondence with them. Bad enough that such correspondence occurs in any litigation. It is utterly inconsistent with a fundamental aspect of proper family law practice. ‘Family law cases are not supposed to be conducted as “adversarial” proceedings. Quite the contrary, the goal is to reduce acrimony and adversarial approaches common to general civil litigation and, instead, to foster cooperation between the parties and their counsel with a view toward settlement short of full-blown litigation. [See Fam. C. §§ 2100 (b), § 271 (a) (sanctions for uncooperative conduct in family law cases); see also Cal. Atty. Guidelines of Civility & Professionalism § 19-‘in family law proceedings an attorney should seek to reduce emotional tension and trauma and encourage the parties and attorneys to interact in a cooperative atmosphere, and keep the best interest of the children in mind’]” Davenport at page 29-30 [emphasis in original].
The Family Law Court went on to warn:
“We close this discussion with a reminder to counsel-all counsel, regardless of practice, regardless of age-that zealous advocacy does not equate with ‘attack dog’ or ‘scorched earth’; nor does it mean lack of civility… (Citations omitted) …Zeal and vigor in the representation of clients are commendable. So are civility, courtesy, and cooperation. They are not mutually exclusive.” id at page 33.
So the next time you want your lawyer to send a scathing letter to the opposing attorney, you might want to check your bank balance to see if you can really afford the consequences for so doing.
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About Barbara Hammers
Ms. Hammers is a native Southern Californian born in Glendale, California. After several years of running successful businesses, she earned her degree in Psychology, graduating with highest honors from California State University, Fullerton.
Ms. Hammers went on to earn her law degree from University of California, Los Angeles, and started her own practice shortly thereafter. Although she has some civil litigation experience, she has concentrated her law practice in the area of domestic relations/Family Law since 1997. She is certified as a Specialist in Family Law by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization.
Ms. Hammers is currently the senior litigation partner in Hammers & Baltazar, LLP, with offices located in Santa Monica and Newport Beach, California.
Her organizational memberships include the Family Law Sections of the State Bar of California, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Santa Monica Bar Association, Beverly Hills Bar Association, Orange County Bar Association, American Bar Association and is currently a member of the Family Law Executive Committee for the State Bar of California (FLEXCOM). She was the Chair for the State Bar of California's Children's Issues Committee from 2005 to 2009, was the Committee's Secretary from 1998 to 2003, and the Vice Chair from 2003 to 2004. She is currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists. She is the Chair of the Santa Monica Bar Association's Family Law Section and is the incoming president of the Santa Monica Bar Association. She is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Family Law Section Executive Committee. She is a graduate of the American Bar Association, Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute.
Ms. Hammers has lengthy experience in program presentations for the Family Law Section of the Santa Monica Bar Association and has coordinated and hosted monthly MCLE programs approximately 10 times per year since 2006. She has developed and presented programs for the American Bar Association's Family Law Section and has assisted in the development of programs for the State Bar of California, Family Law Section. She has also authored articles on fathers paternity rights, division of stock options, law practice management, domestic violence prevention, and various other topic of interest to the family law community.
Her volunteer efforts in the community have included assisting victims of Domestic Violence through volunteering at local Domestic Violence Clinics in Los Angeles County, and she has been assisting the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Family Law, Traffic, Civil Harassment, and Small Claims in courthouses throughout Los Angeles County since 2007.
Early training as a litigator allows her to move comfortably in the family court system but her natural talents as a problem solver make her an excellent mediator. In her desire to offer the full range of legal services to the family law client, she has expanded her practice to include Collaborative Divorce which allows the family law client an alternative to the traditional legal model of litigation to resolve disputes. Collaborative Divorce allows the clients and their counsel to fashion remedies that make the process of divorcing one with the potential of growth for both parties while preserving the resources of the couple and lessening the damage to children often experienced in the adversarial process. The outcome is usually better than can be obtained in the traditional litigation setting.
Ms. Hammers can be contacted at her office in Los Angeles County at Hammers & Baltazar, 1410 2nd Street, Suite 302, Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 458-0796, or at her Orange County office located at 901 Dover Drive, Suite 211, Newport Beach, CA 92660 (949) 631-2805.
Areas of Practice:
100% Family Law
Litigation Percentage:
75% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
Certification/Specialties:
Family Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization, 2006
Bar Admissions:
California, 1997 U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1997
U.S. Supreme Court, 1997
Education:
University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, 1997 J.D.
California State University, Fullerton, California, 1994 B.S.
Honors: Summa Cum Laude
Honors: Dean's List & Consecutive Semesters Major: Psychology
Citrus Community College, Glendora, California, 1991
Associate Science
Honors: With Honors
Major: Cosmetology
Professional Associations and Memberships:
State Bar of California, Family Law Section, 2008 - 2011 Executive Committee
Los Angeles County Bar Association Member
Santa Monica Bar Association, 2009 - 2010 President Elect Beverly Hills Bar Association Member
Orange County Bar Association Member American Bar Association Member State Bar of California, 2005 - 2008 Chair,
Children's Issues Committee State Bar of California, 1998 - 2003
Children's Issues, Committee Secretary State Bar of California, 2003 - 2004
Children's Issues, Vice Chair Santa Monica Bar Association, Family Law Section, 2006 - 2009 Chair
The Santa Monica Bar Association Board of Trustees
Los Angeles County Bar Association, Family Law Section, 2007 - 2010 Member, Executive Committee
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