Sanctions Backfire: Defendant's Baseless Requests for Rule 11 Sanctions May Lead to Sanctions Against Defense Counsel

The court denied defendant's motion for Rule 11 sanctions and issued a show cause order against defense counsel why he should not be sanctioned for multiple meritless sanctions motions. "Rule 11 sanctions are reserved for instances where, unlike here, 'it is patently clear that a claim has absolutely no chance of success[.]'. . . Defendant asked three times in the span of one month for the Court to sanction Plaintiff for bringing its complaint. Then, Defendant used [a] supplemental brief . . . as a platform to ask once again for Rule 11 sanctions. All of these requests have been procedurally improper and baseless."

OptiGen, LLC v. Animal Genetics, Inc., 5-10-cv-00940 (NYND May 23, 2011, Order) (Scullin, J.)