Feds Want Disbarred Atty's FOIA Suit Over USPTO Docs Axed

By Dorothy Atkins, Law360, Apr. 24, 2024

The federal government urged a North Carolina federal court Wednesday to toss a disbarred attorney's sprawling Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over U.S. Patent and Trademark Office documents, arguing the case is one of a dozen duplicative, meritless suits the plaintiff has filed.

The motion asked U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III to dismiss Richard Polidi's latest pro se lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction, or alternatively for failure to state a viable claim.

In a footnote, the government said the lawsuit is one of 12 that Polidi, who was disbarred a decade ago over paying a client in a personal injury lawsuit, has filed "in contravention of judicial admonishment to stop filing 'meritless and repetitive claims in the [district] related to his disbarment.'"

Polidi filed the suit in September and amended it in February after the government filed its original motion to dismiss.

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