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OH… I see what you did there!
Initial pleadings rank among the most boring artifacts of legal writing. There’s some flare in briefing an argument. The cease-and-desist process is ripe for sarcasm. Opinions provide judges with a whole canvas for personality (for good or ill). Even contracts can deliver amusement if one of the parties is an idiot.
But a complaint is such a dry recitation of facts. Only an answer is more soul-suckingly boring than a complaint. Though one attorney out there found a way to insert emphasis, style, and personality into the pleadings.
Perfection.
Stick-in-the-mud practitioners have grumbled that this is inappropriate. Certainly the lawyer is taking a risk, but it’s not like a judge is really going to get into the weeds of a complaint outside of a motion to dismiss and this paragraph isn’t going to play into any a dispositive motion. Would a narc of an opposing counsel whine to the judge about professionalism? Possibly, though no one likes a tattle-tale.
The only real audience for a complaint is the defendant’s counsel and maybe the defendant’s carrier. This is the document that’s supposed to make either the lawyer or the insurer stop and tell the defendant that they’re screwed. If the plaintiff’s lawyers want to go outside the box to drive the message home, so be it.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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