{"id":9145,"date":"2008-04-19T08:57:18","date_gmt":"2008-04-19T13:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/04\/19\/have-you-ever-been-punched-by-a-cl"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:29","slug":"have-you-ever-been-punched-by-a-client","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/04\/19\/have-you-ever-been-punched-by-a-client\/","title":{"rendered":"have you ever been punched by a client?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boxer <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> S<\/strong><\/em>chenectady attorney Brian Mercy<\/a> evoked tears of joy earlier this week<\/a> from a client who had been in jail since last August, but was released from a drug charge when the vehicle search was held to be warrantless and illegal. But, Brian wasn’t quite so lucky yesterday with another jail-house dwelling client. According to the print edition of today’s Schenectady Daily Gazette<\/em><\/a> (“Man punches attorney during court appearance,” April 19, 2008, p. B2):<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“A man facing a jail assault charge apparently didn’t like the plea offered to him Friday.<\/p>\n

“Charles Ardley, 21 [street name “Murder”], who was being held at the Schenectady County jail since last fall, responded by punching his attorney in the face, officials said.<\/p>\n

\n

‘He got mouthy with the judge and reached over and punched me in the side of the head,’ said attorney Brian Mercy, who was not injured. ‘I saw it coming.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

. . . “Mercy, who is no longer representing Ardley, said his former client was expected to be charged with contempt and harassment.<\/p>\n

“The offer was apparently withdrawn.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although I’ve on occasion been tempted to slap a client or two upside the head (a couple divorce mediation husbands come to mind), I’ve never been punched, slapped or even pushed by a client. I have had a couple scary parents of my Law Guardian clients make not-at-all subtle threats when they did not like my opinion as to who should get custody or more visitation, or whether foster care was necessary. [These guys usually had biceps larger than my head.]<\/p>\n

What about you, Mr. or Ms. Lawyer? Have you ever been punched or assaulted by a client? Are criminal lawyers more at risk than matrimonial lawyers or estate planners? Let us know with a Comment or a blurb at your weblog.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

update<\/strong><\/em> (2 PM EDT): Hat tip to Ed<\/em> of BlawgReview<\/em><\/a> for sending me a YouTube Link to “Lawyer Punched in Face in Court<\/a>,” on which Dustin Wadsworth shows a clip of a public defender being punched by his robbery-suspect client in a court room in Georgetown, KY. (ABC2Newscast, Feb. 6, 2008). This lawyer (not identified) got walloped.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

afterglow<\/em><\/strong> (April 21, 2008): Thanks to all the blawgers who have pointed to this posting from their weblogs, including Holden at What About Clients<\/a>, Gideon at A Public Defender<\/a><\/em>, Kevin at Real Lawyers Have Blogs<\/a><\/em>, and David at Above the Law<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

If this post interested you, you might want to take a look at “poorly framed in Schenectady<\/a>,” where I ask whether a local public defender should have refused to present an obviously-bogus alibi (which included using a photo from a picture frame in pointing to an imaginary perpetrator). If you are the defensive-lawyer type, it might make you want to punch someone (i.e.<\/em>, me).<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"boxer . . . . . . \"boxer<\/font><\/p>\n

streetwalker
\nwith a black eye halo
\naround the moon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

….. by George Swede from Almost Unseen<\/em><\/p>\n

empty punchbowl
\nhusband and wife
\navoid the mistletoe<\/p>\n

…… by dagosan<\/p>\n

\n
\n

all fools day
\nmy daughter gets in first
\nwith a pinch and punch<\/p>\n

…….. by Matt Morden – The Heron\u2019s Nest<\/em> (June 2001)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

new year\u2019s morning
\nlike every other
\nwe punch the clock<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 ed markowski<\/p>\n

\n
\n

mosquitoes
\nthe slap of a beaver tail
\nat twilight<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . . by Alice Frampton – The Heron\u2019s Nest<\/em> (Sept. 2005)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

singing a song
\nand slapping his butt…
\nwith a fan<\/p>\n

from his hole
\nthe snake pokes his head…
\nthe cat slaps it<\/p>\n

swat! swat!
\nthe escaping fly buzzes
\nwith laughter<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

… by Kobayashi Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Schenectady attorney Brian Mercy evoked tears of joy earlier this week from a client who had been in jail since last August, but was released from a drug charge when the vehicle search was held to be warrantless and illegal. But, Brian wasn’t quite so lucky yesterday with another jail-house dwelling client. According to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555,3513,2927],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-lawyer-news-or-ethics","category-schenectady-synecdoche"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2nv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12301,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145\/revisions\/12301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}