- 22 - responsible for respondent’s costs reasonably incurred as a result of having to prepare to defend against all her frivolous arguments. However, we will not include any of the time spent by respondent in considering Ms. Spaid’s frivolous arguments in preparing respondent’s posttrial briefs, which properly made no more than a passing reference to the lack of content of those arguments. The time spent appears excessive and did not result in any legal work product that was helpful to the Court. In our opinion in Edwards v. Commissioner, supra, we decided we would award respondent costs under section 6673(a)(2) for Ms. Spaid’s knowing and reckless advocacy of frivolous issues. In addition to her sanctionable conduct, Ms. Spaid exhibited a large measure of disorganization and negligence in performing routine litigation matters. We will not award respondent’s costs for the time spent by Ms. Zusi and Ms. Moe that was directly attributable to responding to Ms. Spaid’s disorganization and negligence. We will reduce the fees requested by respondent to an amount that we estimate is more commensurate with the time spent by Ms. Zusi and Ms. Moe in responding to the frivolous arguments without regard to the disorganized and negligent fashion in which Ms. Spaid prepared for trial, including the time spent on discovery and preparation of the second stipulation of facts, which was primarily designed to provide support for Ms. Spaid’s frivolous arguments. After considering respondent’s affidavit and Ms.Page: Previous 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011