Hmmm...

Igots over at Color of Law has been posting fairly regularly about work at a PI firm (that's Personal Injury, not the much cooler Private Investigator) this summer. Here is an excerpt from a recent post that bothered me:

At our depo[sition] the other day, the friendly insurance lawyer turns out to be a contracted temp lawyer. She doesn't really work for them. She tells us that the insurance litigation department is experiencing some turnover.

We got several cases pending with them. So what do we do? Over the next few days, we're going to flood them with discovery requests, followed by a settlement offer. This may be a good months for us.

This sounds like it comes awfully close to being an improper discovery request that is for an "improper purpose, such as to harass or to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation," (Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 26(g)(2)(B)... or whatever the equivalent state discovery rule may be) doesn't it? Hearing an opposing attorney say that the opponent doesn't have a full staff and then showering them with discovery requests and settlement offers... sounds fishy to me. Even if the discovery requests are for things related to the litigation (and hence fair game), it seems a little unethical to prey on the misfortunes of your opponents. Maybe I'm just being naive, but this is the type of thing that can't help the perception of lawyers in our country.