Witness Advocate Rule Does Not Require Disqualification of Plaintiff’s Former In-House Attorney

The court denied defendants' motion to disqualify one of plaintiff's attorneys who previously acted as in-house counsel for a company related to plaintiff on the basis that defendants intended to call the attorney as a witness. "Defendants argues that [the attorney] should be disqualified because they intend to call him as a witness on a variety of topics. . . . Defendants have failed to demonstrate that any testimony by [the attorney] would be sufficiently adverse to [plaintiff]. Accordingly, as Plaintiff does not intend to call [him] to testify on its behalf and as Defendants have not met their burden of showing that [his] testimony would be adverse to Plaintiff, the Court will not disqualify [the attorney] on the basis of [the Florida Advocate Witness Rule]."

JLIP, LLC v. Stratospheric Industries Inc. et al, 0-14-cv-61798 (FLSD February 8, 2016, Order) (Seltzer, M.J.)