Federal Judge Cuts No Slack For Pro Se Homeowner In Foreclosure Challenge Where Litigant Is Harvard Law Grad

The Blog of Legal Times reports:

• Including a receipt for veterinary services for a 75-pound Labrador, along with other "irrelevant" submissions, in filings for a suit regarding a mortgage payment dispute landed a New York attorney in trouble with U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle.
• Huvelle, in a written opinion(1) Friday, dismissed a suit filed by New York attorney Brud Rossmann. Rossmann, who lives in Washington as well as New York, sued Chase Home Finance LLC in October in Washington federal court, claiming the lender misapplied payments he made toward a property he had bought in Virginia.
• Noting that Rossmann graduated from Harvard Law School in 1989, Huvelle chastised him for filing a complaint that was “complex, garbled, and accompanied by hundreds of 'exhibits,' which appear to have been assembled in no particular order.” One of these filings included a bill for veterinary services for the Labrador, Huvelle wrote in a footnote.
• As a practicing attorney, Huvelle wrote, he is held to a higher standard in how he pursues a claim than other pro se applicants who are not attorneys.

For the story, see Attorney, a Harvard Law Grad, Called Out by D.C. Judge for "Garbled" Filings.

(1) For the court ruling, see Rossman v. Chase Home Finance, LLC, No. 10-0977 (ESH) (D.D.C. March 25, 2011). ("Although plaintiff is proceeding pro se, he is an attorney and an experienced litigant. Therefore, plaintiff "is not automatically subject to the very liberal standards afforded to a non-attorney pro se plaintiff because an attorney is presumed to have a knowledge of the legal system and need less protections from the court."" Richards v. Duke Univ., 480 F. Supp. 2d 222, 234 (D.D.C. 2007), aff’d, No. 07-5119, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 30275 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 27, 2007)).