TWC Effort To Prohibit Lawyer-as-Witness Rejected by Judge
A Time Warner Cable bid to have an attorney prohibited from being both trial counsel for Cableview Communications of Jacksonville, Florida, and from testifying as a rebuttal witness was rejected. In an order (in Pacer) Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge James…
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Klindt of Jacksonville denied without prejudice TWC's motion disqualifying Jack Webb. Cableview sued TWC in 2013 (3:13-cv-00306-MMH-JRK), claiming it interfered in FTS USA's 2012 buy of Cableview, and in its motion TWC said Webb participated in the Cableview/TWC negotiations that resulted in a $65,000 settlement agreement being paid to TWC from the Cableview sale but that Florida Bar rule 4.3-7 bars a lawyer from being trial witness and trial counsel in the same action. Klindt in his order said TWC hasn't established Webb is likely to be a necessary witness, which is required to implicate 4.3-7, since neither party intends to call him: "Although an occasion may arise to render his testimony important at trial, right now it is only a vague possibility." If the issue of the potential hardship Web's testimony might pose to either party comes up at trial, Klindt said, the assessment of that hardship might take into account the testimony's importance, its inconsistency with other testimony and how foreseeable it is to either party. TWC didn't comment Monday.