April 29, 2004

Working Late

Normally, I'm one of these people who simply can't stop working. Even when I get tired, push my chair back away from my desk, grab my purse and head for the door, I'm still thinking about work. It has been a real struggle for me over the past couple of years to relax and really let go of work when I go home. I've gotten better at it though. Until last night.

One of my bigger cases is another one of these one plaintiff vs. numerous big corporate defendants type deals. I represent one of the big corporate defendants. Despite the fact that the defendants are big and -- you guessed it -- corporate, many of their lawyers are helpless, clueless creatures. This bugs to me to no end, and since I am neither helpless nor clueless, I always end up volunteering to take responsibility for various phases of the workup of these cases (I set up depositions, subpoena medical records, etc.)

To that end, several weeks ago I set up a deposition of one of the plaintiff's expert witnesses. It was to take place this afternoon at my office. I subpoenaed the witness to ensure he would actually show (you never know unless you send a subpoena), but sadly, the address the plaintiff's lawyer gave me was wrong, so the subpoena was never served. I called him and asked him if he would come to the deposition anyway, and he said yes. So far, so good.

That was Tuesday.

Yesterday I was sitting in my office, minding my own business, being extremely productive (okay, I'm sure I was surfing the net, but we're engaging in the willing suspension of disbelief. This is my story) when my phone rang. It was one of the associates (read: baby lawyers) who works for the plaintiff's law firm. He asked if I wouldn't mind postponing the deposition of the expert, because the expert is a doctor and the only person in their office who knows a lick about medicine is currently in trial in another case. Now, one wonders why they didn't figure out before the day just prior to the deposition that their witness was a doctor, but I didn't want to get into it with him. To be accomodating, I said I didn't have a problem with postponing it, but I couldn't speak on behalf of all defendants. I told him I'd let everyone know he wanted to postpone it and if they had a big issue with that, they could call him. He said even if they did have a big issue with it, too bad for them because he was going to file a Motion to Quash anyway (which would automatically cancel the deposition as soon as he filed it, and we'd have to go to the Judge before we could go forward). No problem.

I e-mailed the defendants and much whining ensued (surprise). Not much later, I received a Motion to Quash from the plaintiff's lawyer over my fax machine, so I called the court reporter and canceled the deposition. Crisis averted, world safe. I moved on to other work and didn't think too much more about it.

I got home around 6:30 or so and was chatting with my husband, Archi-Sapper, while he was making a taco dinner (we've often had taco nights on Wednesday nights......not sure why). As he was dishing up the plates so we could sit down to eat, the phone rang. I went to answer it, and saw the plaintiff's law firm on the caller i.d. I was thinking to myself, "No. There is NO WAY these crazy lawyers would call me at home" (again, willing suspension of disbelief). I answered the phone and heard, "Hi, it's Baby Lawyer from Plaintiff's Firm. Do you hate me for calling you at home?" And I replied, "No, I'm just surprised." He laughed and said, "Well, I was just calling because I heard that you might have gotten other deposition dates from our expert of when he's available to testify." "Yes", I responded.

After talking for a few minutes his boss got there (the one who had been in trial) and she got on the phone. She said, "Well, just so you know, we're ready to take this deposition tomorrow afternoon. Are you?" Incredulous, I said, "No, I'm not. Your associate called me late this morning and asked to postpone the deposition because YOU were going to be unavailable and said that even if I wanted to take the deposition I couldn't because he was going to quash it. Therefore, I told all the other defendants it was canceled, I canceled the court reporter and didn't prepare for the deposition because YOU didn't want to take it. It is too late to change that now." She said, "Okay, well let's pick a new date. Do you have your calendar in front of you?" and I said, "No. Oddly enough, I didn't realize I'd be scheduling expert depositions from home tonight, so I don't." She asked me to call her in the morning and I agreed.

Still stunned that opposing counsel was calling me at home in the evening, I called my boss at her house to regale her with this story. She replied, "You must've made it to the big leagues now, kiddo. That lawyer called me at home a few years ago, but it was at 10:00 at night. She called to tell me I'm a liar." We had a good laugh over that, and I proceeded into the living room to eat tacos and watch American Idol.

Around 10:20 or so, Archi-S and I slipped into bed. We were lying in the darkness and he said, "You aren't tired. What are you thinking about?" I replied, "That crazy deposition." He said, "You shouldn't think about that. I'm sure no one else is." At 10:30, the phone rang. I said, "Who is calling us at 10:30 at night?" He answered, handed me the phone and said, "It's Plaintiff's Lawyer."

At this point, my life officially went from weird to insane. Plaintiff's lawyer told me that after she had hung up with me earlier in the evening, she had sent out a fax to all defendants saying that, although plaintiffs were ready to go forward with the deposition, they would elect not to go forward since we preferred to postpone the deposition (a completely mangled version of what actually transpired, but I expect nothing less from her). In response, one of the defense lawyers in the case (who also happens to be in trial with this plaintiff's lawyer this week and next) fired off a letter in reply. The defense lawyer basically said, "No, we didn't cancel it, we're prepared to go forward. See you tomorrow." Plaintiff's lawyer then became confused and called me.

I had no good advice. I was tired and confused, sitting in my bed next to my husband and dog and wondering where my life had taken such a wrong turn. She said, "Well, I happen to have that other defense lawyer's home phone number. Why don't I conference her in?" *beep* *beep* *beep* And *poof!* we were on a conference call. Understand that even in my most work-obsessed states, I have never once desired to attend a 10:30 p.m. conference call while in bed. Never. Ever. Not once. That said, there I was.

The defense lawyer said, "Well Plaintiff's Lawyer, we're ready to proceed tomorrow, but we thought you didn't want to take the deposition. I don't know how you did it since I was in trial with you all day today, but somehow you filed a Motion to Quash the deposition while we were in trial in this other case." Plaintiff's Lawyer said, "I did not file a Motion to Quash!" at which point I piped up and said, "Baby Lawyer filed one on your behalf." She then said, with as much righteous indignation as she could muster, "Well, we withdraw that Motion to Quash!" I said, "It's a little late for that. It is 10:30 at night." We all chatted inconclusively and then hung up with the understanding that I would call the defense lawyer so we could chat privately.

I clicked off the line and promptly called her back as promised. She really wanted to take this deposition today for reasons that had zippo to do with me. I said I was nowhere near prepared to take the deposition, as I had spent all day doing other work once I found out the deposition was canceled. She said, "Well, maybe your Boss could take it." I said, "Oh I'm sure she's capable, but she would probably want more notice than this." She said, "Well, wait a sec. Let me conference her in." All of these three-ways I was having with various women probably would've been sexy had we not all been lawyers.

My boss wisely chose not to answer the phone, so the defense lawyer left her a message. We chatted after that for a bit and then hung up.

I got to the office this morning and had no idea what the day would bring. I booted up my laptop, went and retrieved my obligatory cup of ice water from the kitchen on my floor, and settled into my office chair. After I'd been at my desk for an hour the phone rang. It was Plaintiff's Lawyer. She said, "Our expert is not available for deposition this afternoon, so there will be no deposition." Thanks. So glad you cleared that up.

Posted by Kitty at April 29, 2004 09:25 PM

Comments

good lord. Sometimes I am glad I didn't go into law.

Posted by: pylorns at April 30, 2004 04:34 PM

No shit! I'd be going psycho if I was laying in bed at night and some idiot called me wanting to know how come when downloads and install X application the system blue screens and how that's somehow my fault!

Posted by: Big Daddy at April 30, 2004 04:42 PM

I hate stupid people. But, I love Caller ID. It, too, will be your friend going forward.

Posted by: RokynRobyn at May 1, 2004 03:22 PM

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