No Ace Attorney: Gaming Addiction Costs Lawyer His Career
Normally, I have about as much sympathy for lawyers in trouble as I do for ex-girlfriends whose breakups involved live ammo, but since this guy is obviously a fellow gamer, I can make a small exception.
Pennsylvania lawyer Matthew Eshelman has been disbarred for three years for letting his gaming addiction interfere with his legal career. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board identified 17 civil cases that Eshelman mishandled because of the time he spent playing video games instead of working on his clients. Eshelman told the court that he had been fired from another law firm and went into solo practice and the stress of both his work and home life forced him to find an escape that became his addiction. Then the complaints started piling up and the Board suspended him from practicing law for three years.
Of course, anything can become addictive but the jury is still out on video gaming addiction from a completely medical point of view. As of 2007, the American Medical Association has refused to identify the trend as a purely psychiatric condition because more study is needed to provide the science necessary to label it as such.
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