Everyone Just STOP!!!!

The problem with my staff is they're used to traveling at warp speed. Problems pop up and they have to solve them on the fly. Often, this is a good trait to have. Sometimes they forget not all problems are a 10 minute problem.

A case got screwed up a lot on Thursday or so we thought. It couldn't be fixed Thursday because the boss and I were in hearings the entire day. Little bits of the story came out on Friday, but I couldn't answer any of their questions yet. I told them I needed to review the file to see what documents were in it and what those documents said. I also wanted to review some of the trial rules the judge mentioned and certain aspects of the statute we were operating under. Once I knew exactly what we had I could try to figure out what we needed to do. It didn't help that it was really 3 issues that were slightly comingled.

Unfortunately, Friday had many fires that needed to be put out and my hearing had two 30 minute continuances to allow other attorneys to attend other hearings and let the court have other hearings. I never had a chance to review anything on Friday. Fine, let the boss and I figure out something on Monday.

Yesterday I come in and on my to-do list is resolves this damn file from last Thursday. However, between my various hearings it seems the staff was talking to the boss and the boss was sometimes talking to the judge. No one ever got everyone together, including me, to just figure out all the issues. So staff is trying to figure out if documents are missing or are our procedures wrong, how to get a motion reconsidered, and other problems. So they got worked up in a frenzy because they thought they were being blamed for the problems. Sometimes I'm diplomatic and sometimes I'm blunt.

ME: Look if I were blaming you for this situation I would telling you outright you did this wrong and blame you! All I'm saying is the judge couldn't find this document in the court file, but that's not saying the document wasn't in there.
STAFF #1: But we send the court a copy of all those documents as part of the file.
ME: I know that's our procedure and I don't doubt you did send the court that packet of docs.
STAFF #3: Then how come they're missing from the file?
ME: I didn't say they were missing. I'm just saying the judge ruffled the pages for 15-20 seconds and didn't find that order.
STAFF #2: There's only the orders, the summons, the petitions, and referenced paperwork in the file. Should be easy to find.
ME: *Holds up the entire file in my hand* You're telling me you could find a specific piece of paper in this 50 page stapled together and papercliped pile in less than 20 seconds?
STAFF #3: But we send all that to the court so it's supposed to be in their file.
ME: *starting to raise voice in frustration* I'm not saying the order wasn't in there! The judge just couldn't find it before I did in a minute!

That went on for about 20 minutes. It didn't help that they wanted to comingle 3 different issues. I wanted to come up with a plan for Issue #1, but they wanted to bring in Issues #2 and #3. "Can we just solve one problem first BEFORE we try to figure out the other problems please?"

I only worked on four things Monday. Everything was interrupted by something else in that four item rotation. By the end of the day I was no closer to solving any of the four problems as I was at the beginning of the day. I damn near yelled at them to stop bothering me with the problems so I could actually solve one or two of them!

Today started out the same way The boss and I were looking at parts of the same statute to see if we had different opinions. We both found commentary concerning the statute and I managed to grab the file back from staff so I could review it. A complicated statute with a complicated fact pattern belongs on an exam, not in the 10 minute pile. It took both of us the entire morning to review the items we had. The boss and I wanted to compare notes after lunch but something came up. What little notes we did compare seemed to say the same things.

The judge was probably right to deny this one motion, but did it for the wrong reasons. The odds were high we didn't have the ability to do what was in our motion in the first place given the facts and procedural history of the case. In the future it would be a very good idea to have one of the attorneys review the file first before making such motions. Depending on the facts we can do it or maybe not. The way we treated cases like this before was probably incorrect under the statute.

The boss and I will fully compare notes for about 30 minutes tomorrow. We'll need to update staff on our findings and make suggestions on updating certain procedures I suspect. I just wish everyone would have shut up for a bit and slowed down. If they had just let the lawyers investigate things and discuss some observations with the judge we probably would have the problem resolved earlier. The fact everyone wanted an answer quickly actually slowed down the process of solving the problem! Drop out of warp speed people! Sometimes you need to take the slow route to get the problem fixed right.