WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - A Delaware attorney’s federal lawsuit accuses the state’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel of "harassing and attacking” him for half a decade.
In a 27-page complaint filed on Jan. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Richard Abbott says the ODC went after him in response to what he says were false allegations made in 2015 by the then-vice chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, Sam Glasscock.
According to Abbott, Glasscock requested the ODC to conduct a “fishing expedition” investigation of him. The suit labels the act in question a “hyberbolic attack.”
“No facts or law supported the vice chancellor’s personally motivated attack on Abbott pursuant to the hyberbolic attack,” the complaint says. “It was based on the vice chancellor’s personal, subjective and stylistic differences with Abbott’s litigation approach.”
Abbott asserts he was targeted for “advice to his client on how to potentially avoid a court judgment” and “[his] preparation of [two] deeds transferring title to [two] houses owned by his client to his client’s wife.”
Abbott, who is representing himself, seeks a permanent injunction and a declaratory judgment.
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware Case No. 1:20-cv-00131