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Plaintiffs Unveil Smoking Gun Photo in Support of 'Deposition Toe-Tapping' Accusation

By Bruce Carton

I was a litigator for years. How do I not know about tricks like deposition toe-tapping? Maybe I needed to practice in Florida to learn these things? The South Florida Lawyers blog reports that accusations of "the ancient method of 'toe-tapping' to allegedly signal to a witness how to respond during a deposition" are being thrown around in a case pending in federal court down in Key West. In a motion filed July 30, 2010 seeking sanctions and the termination of the alleged toe-tapper's pro hac vice status, plaintiffs claim that on July 12 their counsel, Juan Carlos Antorcha, was conducting a deposition by telephone that was attended in person by a paralegal working for plaintiffs' counsel. The paralegal who attended the deposition for them claims he "heard a clicking sound, looked around, and noted that [defendant's attorney Kenneth] Engerrand was tapping the foot of Witness Dennis at different points after questions were asked." The paralegal was alarmed and, after swapping text messages with plaintiffs' counsel who was taking the deposition remotely, took matters into his own hands and memorialized the toe-tapping with the following photo from his camera phone: Plaintiffs allege that "an amazed Antorcha asked the witness and...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on August 06, 2010 (boomark / email).