Meet and Confer and professional practices
<p>State of California Federal Court. I am a pro se defendant and I had a &quot;meet and confer&quot; with the opposing counsel. In the meeting the opposing counsel was incredibly unprofessional, petty with insults, gave me his own legal conclusions, and would yell and berate me constantly-- even calling me names like &quot;idiot.&quot;</p>
<p>Opposing counsel was also eager about how they would file sanctions against me if I didn't remove my counter claim, to the point it seemed a bit like a threat / extortion.</p>
<p>I know that the law is an adversarial system, which took me getting used to, but is this normal behavior?</p>

<p>Nope. Counsel are expected to behave professionally toward opposing parties and opposing counsel.</p>
<p>If you've just had a meet-and-confer, you're probably going to have a case-management conference in the near future. You can use that opportunity to raise these issues with the court.</p>

<p>Asserting that a party will seek sanctions, with a good faith basis for doing so, is not improper. And, while it is rude to call someone an idiot or raising one's voice, it isn't uncommon for a <em>pro se</em> party to be doing something that is in some way highly ill advised that will trigger that response. He should give you his own legal conclusions, that is part of the point of a &quot;meet and confer&quot;.</p>
<p>If it comes to light before the judge, the judge will probably admonish him gently, but that will probably be the end of it.</p>

sanctions