Judge J.P. Boulee, DeKalb County Superior Court (Photo: John Disney / ALM)

In a blistering order, the DeKalb County judge overseeing a legal malpractice case has struck the defenses and entered a default judgment against attorney James Potts II, leaving only the issue of damages to be decided by a jury.

Potts' “behavior in this case is the most egregious the court has ever seen,” wrote Superior Court Judge J.P. Boulee, and thus “the most extreme sanction is warranted.”

Potts' attorney called the underlying suit groundless and said he would seek an immediate appeal of Boulee's ruling.

Potts was sued last year by William Clowdis Jr., who according to court filings and arguments is both a former employee and client.

Clowdis, a former medical doctor in Virginia, had his license suspended and was ordered into a monitoring program based on what he claims were unfounded allegations of substance abuse. He also holds a law degree, although he is not licensed to practice in any state.

According to his complaint, Clowdis began working with Potts in 2012, providing legal and medical advice on civil cases. He was paid a “modest” salary, and Potts also agreed to help him with his case before the Virginia Medical Board.

Clowdis would later accuse Potts of deliberately ruining his relationship with the medical board, resulting in his license being “resuspended,” and then failing to do anything to help his case.

He said Potts settled cases the two had worked on together for more than $10 million but refused to share the proceeds.

Last year, Clowdis sued Potts and his practice, claiming legal malpractice, defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, libel and other counts.

Potts successfully moved to have several of the counts dismissed and filed his own counterclaims and motion for summary judgment.

The suit has been marked by discovery disputes and allegations of deceptive behavior by both parties.

During a nearly daylong hearing in August on a stack of outstanding motions, Clowdis' attorneys, Louis Levenson and George Lott of Levenson & Associates, asked Boulee to strike Potts' pleadings as a sanction for a “continuing pattern” of discovery abuse and failure to provide requested documents.

Potts' lawyer, Eugene Butt of Potts' firm, countered that Clowdis' complaint was both untimely and contained clearly false allegations.

On Monday, Boulee's ruling came down on Clowdis' side with a bang.

“Normally,” Boulee wrote, “only a total failure to serve answers or objections would subject a party to immediate sanctions, like a dismissal, without the necessity of the court first entering an order requiring offending party to respond.”

But an “important exception” allows such a dismissal “when a party intentionally makes false responses to a document production request, particularly false responses concerning a pivotal issue in the litigation,” he wrote.

In this case, Boulee wrote, Potts “willfully, falsely, and knowingly den[ied] the existence of requested discoverable documents.”

The judge highlighted Potts' belated initial response to a query under the title of “Defendants' Supplemental Responses and Objections.”

The title “was designed to trick the court or trick opposing counsel into thinking the responses were timely,” Boulee said. “At the very least, it is game playing that should not be tolerated in Georgia.”

Among the documents requested were any related to another, settled lawsuit between Potts and another lawyer in litigation “very similar to the instant case.”

The defense had replied that the documents were under seal and not available but, when Clowdis' counsel filed a motion to unseal, the judge in that case said they were not sealed.

The defendants “willfully misrepresented that the documents were under seal as an explanation for not producing the discoverable documents,” Boulee wrote.

In another example, Boulee said the defense repeatedly claimed not to possess hundreds of requested emails.

Boulee said he was “extremely troubled” that the defense “repeatedly misrepresented to [Clowdis] the existence of these documents for over a year.”

“Each and every one of the defendants' representations was false and misleading” regarding the documents, the judge wrote. “Defendants' actions could not have been the result of a mistake. As such, the court will treat the false representations as a complete failure to respond.”

Pursuant to the judgment, Clowdis is “entitled to verdict and judgment by default as if every item and paragraph of his complaint were supported by proper evidence.” A jury will determine any appropriate damages, Boulee said.

Butt, representing Potts, told the Daily Report by email, “There is no legal malpractice.”

Butt cited testimony on Potts' behalf by Dentons partner Randy Evans, who co-wrote a long-running column for the Daily Report on legal ethics matters before he was nominated recently by President Donald Trump to be ambassador to Luxembourg.

“As Randy Evans, our expert and the leading authority in this field in Georgia testified, this is a classic case of 'no good deed goes unpunished,'” Butt wrote.

“We've requested a certificate for immediate review regarding the court's order,” said Butt. “We feel strongly that Judge Boulee ought to have granted our motion for summary judgment. We have a marked difference of opinion as to how discovery was conducted” and “are hopeful that Judge Boulee will give the Court Appeals an opportunity to review his decision.”

Levenson said the forceful order reflected Boulee's concern about the defense's tactics.

The order “should be considered by this defendant and others who behave as if discovery is a game rather than a set of rules,” said Levenson. “I admire the court's courage in carefully studying the case to reach the appropriate findings of fact and conclusions of law.”