FIA Card Services, N.A. v. James D. Pichette HSBC Bank Nevada, N.A. v. Robert L. Cournoyer Discover Bank v. Diana L. O'Brien-Auty

OPINION

Chief Justice SUTTELL,

for the Court.

The appeals before us emanate from the activities of three attorneys who authored pleadings, but did not disclose their respective identities, on behalf of pro se defendants in three separate debt collection cases, a practice colloquially known as ghostwriting. 1 These appeals present two issues of first impression in Rhode Island: (1) whether Rule 11 of the Superi- or Court Rules of Civil Procedure applies to an attorney who authored a pleading but neither signed it nor entered his or her appearance in the case; and (2) whether the anonymous…