“Lawyers—especially defense lawyers—are naturally risk averse. Were it otherwise, they would all have taken their considerable talents to riskier ventures in life.” Those are the opening words of a recent memorandum opinion issue by U.S. District Judge Joshua D. Wolson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. What follows over the next several pages of the opinion is a veritable smackdown of defense attorneys who over-plead affirmative defenses.

Wolson continued “Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure 11 requires lawyers to have a good faith basis to make an assertion in a pleading or other filing. A good faith basis requires more than just a worry that something might happen. It means that a lawyer has a reason to think that the claims in the case warrant the assertion.” See DeSandies v. Encore Group (USA), Case No. 2:24-cv-01044-JDW (E.D. Pa. Apr. 19, 2024).