New Jersey Solo Practitioner Ordered to pay $89,000 sanction for deficient pleadings // NJ Law Journal

New Jersey Solo Practitioner Ordered to pay $89,000 sanction for deficient pleadings // NJ Law Journal
by Charles Toutant

A federal judge has ordered a lawyer to reimburse Camden County $89,234 in legal fees for pursuing a discrimination suit after the court deemed it factually and legally frivolous.

Senior U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle ordered Sewell attorney Cheryl Cooper on Thursday to pay that amount for her representation of John Sosinavage, a former lieutenant in the Camden Police Department. Sosinavage lost his job when that department was disbanded in 2013 and the Camden County Police Department began serving the city.

Cooper was sanctioned in February for failing to withdraw or correct her deficient pleadings even after receiving notice that those claims were not supported by facts. At that time, Simandle said Cooper pursued the failure-to-hire claim for more than three years against the county “that she knew or should have known was factually and legal frivolous, despite clear warning of precisely these deficiencies in 2015.”

Cooper sued Camden County, Police Chief Scott Thomson and two deputy chiefs, claiming Sosinavage suffered discrimination based on age, protected First Amendment activity or both, when he was not invited to apply to the Camden County Police Department while his name appeared on a statewide list of laid-off public employees. He also sued the city of Camden.

But Sosinavage testified at a deposition that he received a job application for the Camden County Police Department and instructions on how to apply by email, and that he made a conscious decision not to submit the application. Sosinavage also testified that he told others he did not want to work for the Camden County Police Department, and would not accept a position if offered a job there.

Simandle dismissed the county defendants in May 2018.

Simandle, noting that Cooper is a solo practitioner and might have limited financial resources to pay the county defendants for the fees they incurred in the case, invited her Feb. 8 to submit an affidavit addressing her ability to pay. She failed to do so.

Simandle said Cooper could submit the affidavit under seal, as long as a copy was provided confidentially to the county’s lawyer, Christine O’Hearn of Brown & Connery in Westmont. But Cooper failed to submit any such affidavit.