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Cleveland Lawyer Suspended: Client Records Admission He Ignored Discovery Requests

October 18, 2018

The ABA Journal reported on October 15^th that the Ohio Supreme Court indefinitely suspended lawyer Steven Jerome Moody on October 11^th. Moody was representing a client who sued PNC Inc. for alleged job bias, according to the court's opinion. The opposing lawyer, Siobhan Sweeney of Boston, had served Moody with interrogatories and served notice of a deposition, but Moody didn't respond. Sweeney rescheduled the deposition and flew to Cleveland to attend. Neither Moody nor the client showed up. Soon after, Moody called Sweeney and said he couldn't make the deposition and would need to reschedule.

When Moody met with the client to prepare him for the third scheduled deposition, the client secretly recorded him. Among the comments Moody admitted making about discovery and the opposing lawyer:

• "She sent me an interrogatory, request for production of documents, I completely ignored her ass for a few months. And I made her file a motion to compel, and then I called her and said, oh, yeah, I'll get them to you in two weeks. And then I completely ignored her ass again."
• "In this particular case, what I would do is, because we're fighting the bank, right, I would f— with this person at this stage."
• "She's an arrogant bitch, okay?" and, "I made that bitch fly into town" for the missed deposition.
• "Obviously, you know, you don't want to discuss that I played a game with her, you know. But that's basically it."
• "She might ask you, do you know that your attorney didn't send any discovery, do you know that you were supposed to be here on, whatever the—she had one or two dates. Did your attorney tell you that you were supposed to be present for those depositions? Yes."

Moody claimed his failure to comply with the discovery requests was actually inadvertent because he was trying to keep track of all his communications on a cellphone while transitioning from a brick-and-mortar office to a virtual office. Moody said he was only "puffing" to increase his client's confidence in him and to demonstrate he had the upper hand in litigation.

Moody said he had advised his client once or twice to tell the truth, and that negated his instruction to say "yes" if asked whether Moody had told him about the first two attempted depositions. Moody asserted he had disavowed his statements in an unrecorded part of the conversation, an assertion denied by the client.

The Ohio Supreme Court said a hearing panel found Moody's testimony lacked credibility and there was plenty of evidence of misconduct.

The Ohio Supreme Court said Moody's explanation that he lied in an effort to increase his client's confidence had the opposite effect. The client said he was "kind of mind-boggled" that Moody asked him to lie, and he decided to fire Moody because he didn't want to be part of his deceit.

Good for the client. And Moody's words? They speak eloquently for themselves.

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