All the lawyers at a Chicago law firm have been ordered by a US court to undergo a refresher training course – the second time in recent months that a law firm has faced such a sanction.

The firm specialises in mortgage foreclosures and other similar cases.


It was found to have mishandled a matter in which it wrongly addressed a homeowner’s address and eventually had her evicted, even though she never received the requisite notice of the proceedings.


The lower court decided that although the mistake was an honest one, the firm’s actions after it learned of the error were sanctionable.


The firm practices in such a way that several lawyers can work on any one case, and argued that the lawyer who handled the eviction was not the same as the one who dealt with the foreclosure.


This defence was dismissed by the court and upheld last month by the seventh circuit Court of Appeals, which said that an ‘empty head but a pure heart is no defence… Neither the firm’s caseload nor its practice of shuffling cases from one attorney to another within the firm excuses the type of negligent action that caused [the homeowner] to be evicted’.


The firm asked the court not to sanction individuals and as a result, the court ordered all of the firm’s 15 lawyers – and any attorneys joining within two years – to attend or view a 16-hour course in civil procedure.


The firm appealed the sanctions, but the Court of Appeals rejected it, saying it saw ‘nothing excessive or overly burdensome’ in the order.


In February, all 80 lawyers at a firm in California were ordered to attend a refresher course in ethics after a case in which the judge had accused the firm of ‘misguided advocacy’ in a dispute over a learning-disabled student.