Lawyers in the wrongful death suit against Andrea Sneiderman are accusing each other of engaging in professional misconduct.

Esther Panitch, who is suing Sneiderman on behalf of Sneiderman’s brother-in-law, wrote in a court filing Thursday that Andrea Sneiderman’s attorneys are making ad hominem attacks “to personally smear a lawyer in good standing.”

She was responding to a motion by Sneiderman attorney Mark Trigg, who on Tuesday asked a judge to sanction Panitch for racing to publicize Sneiderman’s relationship with Joseph Dell. Panitch suggested in a previous filing that Sneiderman may have sought to have her husband Rusty Sneiderman killed by her former boss, Hemy Neuman, so that she could be in a relationship with Dell.

Panitch represents Steven Sneiderman, the executor of Rusty Sneiderman’s estate, who is suing Andrea Sneiderman for her husband’s murder. Andrea Sneiderman also faces criminal murder charges for conspiring in the killing.

Trigg, writing in Andrea Sneiderman’s defense, claimed that Panitch was working with prosecutors in an effort to convict her in the media.

“It seems likely that the assertion at this late date that Andrea had another so-called ‘paramour’ is made in an effort to manipulate Mr. Neuman so that he will fall into a jealous rage, decide to no longer tell the truth in this regard, and finally provide something that so far is completely lacking: any direct evidence that Andrea Sneiderman was a co-conspirator in her husband’s murder,” Trigg wrote.

Panitch wrote that Trigg’s motion for sanctions against her, including attorney fees, is a waste of time.

“Such conduct is emblematic of tactics resorted to by parties whose logical arguments have failed them, and is exactly why the Georgia Bar seeks to dissuade such conduct for the betterment of the profession,” Panitch wrote. “While the Defendant and her counsel may mistakenly believe the undersigned was attempting to gain media attention by the filing, there was no such motive, nor anything to support such a claim, other than their own conjecture.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs has scheduled a Dec. 14 status hearing in the wrongful death case.

The case is Steven Sneiderman v. Andrea Sneiderman, No. 2012-CV-215225.

Contributor: Mark Niesse in DeKalb courts | subscribe to rss |   share