Law for Business 12th Edition by James Barnes,Terry Dworkin,Eric Richards

Exercise 7

Zerlene Rico sued Mitsubishi Motors for negligence and strict liability. Rico's attorney, Raymond Johnson, somehow obtained the notes of one of the defense attorneys, James Yukevich, after a deposition with Yukevich and a defense expert. The document provided a summary of a defense conference between attorneys and defense experts in which the participants discussed the strengths and weaknesses of Mitsubishi's technical evidence. Johnson made a copy for himself before returning the original to the court reporter. Johnson then made additional copies and sent them to Rico's experts and other members of her legal team. Johnson made no effort to notify defense counsel of his possession of the document and instead used the notes to impeach the testimony of a Mitsubishi expert during his deposition. Yukevich, after discovering that Johnson had a copy of his personal notes, filed a motion to disqualify Rico's legal team. Should the court disqualify Rico's legal team and experts from representing her? Explain.