What Can A Lawyer Say To The Press?

Several media groups, the ACLU of Ohio and the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild are among those filing briefs asking an Ohio appeals court to overturn an $11,000 sanctions order leveled against an attorney who talked to the press and provided non-confidential information about a case. The trial judge imposed the fine under a law barring frivolous conduct and said the attorney, who represented plaintiffs, had intended to discredit the defendants. The subsequent article about the case, which concerns an alleged cover up of sexual abuse in a “nanny school,” appeared in an alternative weekly the same day as jury selection. The ACLU maintains in its brief that if what the lawyer did in this matter is deemed frivolous and a violation “no prudent lawyer would will ever want to talk to the press.”