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income tax returns for the 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 taxable
years. Respondent issued notices of deficiency on May 6, 2005.
Petitioner then filed a timely petition with this Court. At the
time he filed his petition, petitioner resided in Hayward,
California. A trial was held on May 22-23, 2007, in San
Francisco, California.
Before proceeding, it is noteworthy that Mr. Morris is an
experienced attorney specializing in criminal law. This case was
initially set for trial in August 2006. At petitioner’s request,
he was granted two continuances. The second continuance was
granted in March 2007 over respondent’s objection.
Despite the additional time he was granted and his
representations to the Court that if the continuances were
granted he would promptly find and provide respondent with
relevant documents demonstrating his entitlement to additional
deductions, petitioner failed to do so. To make matters worse,
petitioner violated the Court’s standing pretrial order by
providing respondent with documents less than the required 14
days before trial. He also showed up for trial without records
pertaining to 3 of the 4 taxable years at issue on the basis that
his “computer wasn’t printing.” The case was nevertheless tried,
although 3 of the 4 taxable years at issue had to be tried on the
following day in order to permit petitioner to finalize and print
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Last modified: March 27, 2008