A recent Daily Business Review story by Samantha Joseph, “Attorney and Client Ordered to Pay Opposing Counsel Over Frivolous Lawsuit,” reports that the litigation in Palm Beach County alone has cost about $4,000, with a mounting legal bill of about $20,000 for the Broward case.  A state appellate court sanctioned Palm Beach attorney Guillermo J. Farinas, holding him personally responsible for half of an attorney fee award against his client.

Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal held Farinas and client Joseph Manzaro equally liable for “frivolous and completely meritless” filings in a child custody case that jumped from Broward to Palm Beach County.  It remanded the case to the lower court with instructions to divide the opposing side’s attorneys fees between Farinas and Manzaro, then took the additional step of making an allowance for future litigation expenses.

“If a motion for rehearing is filed in this court, then services rendered in connection with the filing of the motion, including, but not limited to, preparation of a responsive pleading, shall be taken into account in computing the amount of the fee,” the court ordered.  It was an unusual sanction, but ethics lawyer Andrew Berman has seen it employed with growing frequency as judges order attorneys to explain why courts shouldn’t sanction them along with their clients.

“Appellate courts have become frustrated with frivolous appeals and motions,” said Berman, senior partner at Young Berman Karpf & Gonzalez in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, who was not involved in the litigation.  “It’s done as a method to dissuade people from taking frivolous positions.”

Court records show Farinas turned to the Palm Beach Circuit in 2016 to file a complaint for relief from a 2012 agreed final order from Broward County, claiming extrinsic fraud and lack of personal jurisdiction.  Litigants typically have a one-year window to seek to set aside an order, with exceptions for fraud, mistakes and other causes under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b).

Farinas’ filings suggest he anticipated two hurdles: a potential deadline impediment and the leap from one county—which still maintained jurisdiction—to another.  To mitigate these, he brought the fraud claim and pitched his Palm Beach filing as an independent action.  But the appellate court rejected both strategies, citing precedent requiring litigants to raise fraud claims in the original court.

“The appellant has had multiple opportunities to raise the issues presented in his complaint to the Broward Circuit Court and, in fact, has done so,” Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz wrote in a unanimous decision with Judges Carole Taylor and Dorian Damoorgian.  “His attempt at filing a new lawsuit in a different circuit, after those prior attempts were rejected and while other new attempts still remain pending in the Broward Circuit Court, is completely devoid of merit.”