In the aftermath of the recent “Stairway to Heaven” copyright trial, there were plenty of winners and losers, depending on which side you were on. Now, the trial has claimed a victim.
In the “you can’t make this stuff up” department, the plaintiff’s attorney, Francis Malofiy, has been suspended from practicing law. The decision was made yesterday (June 30) by a appellate panel in the State of Pennsylvania over “various rules of conduct” during a previous copyright infringement lawsuit involving the Usher song “Bad Girls.”
During the “Stairway to Heaven” trial, Malofiy had repeatedly earned admonishments from Judge R Gary Klausner.
Related: Our full coverage of the “Stairway to Heaven” trial
As The Hollywood Reporter notes: “Malofiy’s behavior as an attorney has been the subject of repeated judicial scrutiny, and [the] ruling means he won’t be doing any lawyering until the fall.”
In that Usher suit, THR writes: “[A] three-judge district court panel found Malofiy tricked [an] unrepresented co-defendant into signing an affidavit without consulting a lawyer by hiding that their relationship was adversarial in nature.
“The prior year, Judge Paul Diamond issued sanctions and ordered Malofiy to pay $28,000 in court costs. The district court was troubled by the attorney’s failure to take responsibility for his actions and his other unprofessional and uncivil conduct during the course of the litigation.”
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania appellate panel agreed. Though the “Stairway” trial was in California, Malofiy’s suspension in Pennsylvania would prevent him from appealing the jury’s decision.
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