"From Plaintiff's Astonishingly Verbose Complaint, … the Court Was Able to Extract the Following Relevant Facts": |
Politics
Eugene Volokh | 12.29.2025 8:01 AM
A short excerpt from Chief Judge Sara Lioi's long opinion Tuesday in Deters v. Barrett (S.D. Ohio); the plaintiff is apparently a frequent political candidate, a YouTube commentator, and an attorney who retired after having been suspended (see also this Ohio S. Ct. opinion):
Plaintiff Eric Esquire Deters ("plaintiff"), who claims to be a retired attorney, filed this action pro se against several judges and a state legislator for alleged unlawful conduct implicating plaintiff's medical malpractice litigation on behalf of his clients…. [P]laintiff's pleading suffers from various threshold deficiencies that preclude consideration on the merits and require dismissal. As detailed below, plaintiff's legal claims fail to invoke the Court's subject matter jurisdiction. His asserted claims do not meet the requirements of Article III standing. Moreover, many claims are either barred by an applicable immunity or are patently and utterly implausible. The complaint also fails to comply with the pleading requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). And plaintiff's recently filed amended complaint was filed in violation of the time limits established in Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)….
It is not the role of the Court to "search the record and construct arguments[;] [p]arties must do that for themselves." … Beyond peppering the complaint with extraneous and irrelevant material, plaintiff has also improperly used his pleading to launch personal attacks on defendants and........