Conduct Toward Opposing Counsel and Parties

• Pages: 9-12

Conduct TowardOpposing

Counsel and Parties

Chapter 3

9

Bank attorneys often get pleas to cancel or continue a hearing on

the bank’s motion for summary judgment after opposing counsel

had just appeared in the case. Many bank’s lawyers might want to

say yes to this request, but then of course there is the matter of

justifying such a decision to the bank. If you ask to cancel simply

because you’ve just appeared in the case, the bank’s counsel is likely

to tell you to take it up with the judge. It serves defense attorneys

well to consider such requests in this light: give the bank attorney a

reason for cancelling the hearing that is justifiable to their chain of

command. Such reasons include:

•if the particular judge’s procedures required the hearing to

be coordinated with opposing counsel and it was obvious

that it had not been;

•if the notice of hearing was sent to the wrong address;

•if bank’s counsel scheduled the hearing during the period

of a previously issued notice of unavailability; and

•if the motion was scheduled without the underlying docu-

ments required to be filed therewith, such as the affidavit of

indebtedness, costs, and attorney’s fees.