Typos prove costly for Pennsylvania attorney

[October 09, 2008]  PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Pennsylvania attorney is finding out that typos can be expensive. A judge says lawyer Brian Puricelli, of Newtown, is entitled to $26,000 in fees for his work on a successful civil rights lawsuit, not the more than $180,000 he wanted.

U.S. District Judge William Ditter, in an opinion filed last week, noted that the attorney's paperwork was riddled with typos and errors.

Puricelli admits he relies too heavily on spell-check software and doesn't proofread enough. But he also says the judge should have known he had accidentally filed an unedited copy, and that amended paperwork filed three days later was the finished product.

Ditter, however, says that filing had errors too.

This is the second time Puricelli had his fees slashed for sloppiness. The same thing happened with a different judge in 2004.

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Information from: The Legal Intelligencer, http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/index.jsp

[Associated Press]

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