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Brief: Judge Orders Hearing on Actions of Prosser Lawyer

U. S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith Fitzgerald has ordered a show cause hearing to investigate whether one of Jeffrey Prosser’s lawyers abused or misused his electronic filing privilege. Prosser is the former CEO and owner of Innovative Telephone; the lawyer in question is Norman Abood, a Prosser attorney based in Toledo, Ohio.
The stated reason for Fitzgerald’s ordering the hearing is that Abood, according to the judge, has used a courtroom technique called “notice of filing” improperly several times in the past.
She issued a three-page order on August 19, which reads in part: “to Show Cause Why Norman A. Abood Should Not Be Found to Have Abused and Misused his Electronic Filing Privilege and Why His Electronic Filer Status Should Not be Suspended or Revoked…” [capitalization in the original.]
Apparently lawyers are not supposed to request that the judge do something – in one case, correct the record – through a notice of filing. If a lawyer wants something from a judge, the lawyer is supposed to file a document not only with the judge, but all the other attorneys involved in the case.
In bankruptcy courts most written documents are filed electronically; should Abood lose the right to use the net in this way, it would not remove him from the case, but he would have to file his documents via mail or Fedex, which would cause him to finish his paperwork earlier than he would have to otherwise.
Fitzgerald, who has been hearing the convoluted bankruptcy hearings for more than four years now, will hold the show cause hearing at the time of the usual monthly Prosser hearing in her home courtroom in Pittsburgh on September 15.

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