McCaffrey v. Gatekeeper USA, Inc
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:14-cv-00493-VSB
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In McCaffrey v. Gatekeeper USA, Inc., Judge Broderick scheduled trial, set pretrial deadlines, and required corporate defendants to obtain counsel.
The order affected plaintiff Timothy Andrew McCaffrey; defendants Gatekeeper USA, Inc., Asgard International, Inc., Ares Ventures Inc., A. John Leontakianakos, and John Seetoo; their counsel; and any individual defendant seeking volunteer legal representation.
What happened
In McCaffrey v. Gatekeeper USA, Inc., the court scheduled a jury trial for September 19, 2022, and set deadlines for pretrial filings and a final pretrial conference.
The court also addressed possible free volunteer lawyers for individual defendants A. John Leontakianakos and John Seetoo. It explained that courts may request volunteer counsel for individuals who cannot afford lawyers, but corporations cannot receive that kind of request and must have licensed counsel in federal court.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick ordered any individual defendant seeking volunteer counsel to apply by June 24, 2022, required counsel for Gatekeeper USA, Inc., Asgard International, Inc., and Ares Ventures Inc. to appear by July 8, 2022, and scheduled a telephone status conference for July 11, 2022.
The detailed version
- McCaffrey v. Gatekeeper USA, Inc · No. 1:14-cv-00493-VSB
- Vernon Broderick
- June 10, 2022
Background
At the parties’ request, the court directed the jury department to schedule a trial. At a later status conference, defendants A. John Leontakianakos and John Seetoo said they were interested in seeking volunteer legal representation for a trial on punitive damages.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that federal law allows a court to request volunteer counsel for a person who cannot afford a lawyer. In civil cases, however, courts are not required to provide counsel, cannot appoint a lawyer without the lawyer’s agreement, and must make such requests sparingly because volunteer legal services are limited.
The court distinguished the individual defendants from the corporate defendants—Gatekeeper USA, Inc., Asgard International, Inc., and Ares Ventures Inc. The statute applies to natural persons, not corporations. The court therefore stated that it could request volunteer counsel for the individual defendants but not for the corporations. It also reiterated that corporations cannot appear in federal court without licensed counsel.
Orders
The court scheduled a jury trial to begin September 19, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. A joint pretrial order and motions in limine were due August 5, 2022. Responses to those motions, proposed questions for selecting jurors, proposed verdict forms, and proposed jury instructions were due August 19, 2022. The final pretrial conference was scheduled for August 22, 2022, at 3:30 p.m.
Any individual defendant seeking volunteer counsel was ordered to submit the specified applications by June 24, 2022. Counsel for the corporate defendants was ordered to file a notice of appearance by July 8, 2022. Judge Vernon S. Broderick also scheduled a telephone status conference for July 11, 2022, at 3:30 p.m.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.