Several blogs reported last year on the order entered in the Florida case of Avista Management v. Wausau Underwriters Insurance Co. (June 6, 2006), in which the Judge ordered the lawyers to play a game of "rock, paper, scissors" to resolve a discovery dispute.
Judge Marvin Shoob threatened the same in an order entered in the case of Holmes v. Trauner, Cohen & Thomas, PC. Case No. 1-06-cv-1806-MHS (N.D. Ga.). From the Fulton County Daily Report –
In the Atlanta case, attorney Lisa D. Wright sought a protective order on behalf of plaintiff Kelly Holmes, claiming that defense lawyer Louis R. Cohan had previously deposed one of her other clients “in an abusive, annoying, harassing and oppressive manner.”
As a result, Wright asked Shoob to order that Holmes’s deposition be held either at her office, a court reporter’s office or federal court. Cohan objected and sought his own protective order to bar plaintiff’s counsel from taking depositions from the defense anywhere other than his own law office or the offices of his client, Trauner, Cohen & Thomas.
Shoob denied both motions, and named “Rock, Paper, Scissors” as the future means by which counsel should resolve their differences. “The parties,” Shoob ordered, “shall each bear their own costs of bringing these silly motions.”