Just another Monday

I love Mondays. (Read: I hate Mondays.)

Monday is when everyone starts their work week and decides to catch up on the things they didn't accomplish the week before.

This means that if you forgot to call your attorney during the previous week, you are going to call first thing Monday morning. This means that I am going to get a bunch of calls from clients and attorneys (who also forgot to call me the week before) with wishes/desires/demands.

If you, as an attorney, are in court ALL FRIGGING DAY on Monday, this means that your paralegal is going to have to field calls from all kinds of people, some of whom don't care that the person at whom they are yelling is new and has no familiarity with whatever case is being thrown at them via telephone. My poor new paralegal. Actually, though, she is a gem. I think I might have finally found "the one."

And court wasn't particularly fun today. I had only two appearances, both at family law court. Both cases appeared to be "easy" matters that would probably be resolved rather quickly, and I would be back in my office, tout de suite, to work on matters requiring my urgent attention.

Not to be so. I was in court from 8:30 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m. I worked through lunch, too.

Things went okay, by the way. There was no win or loss in court today. Both matters required temporary orders, with resolution to be had at a future time, but the basis of each matter was serious.

I had to be on my toes because I was up against very experienced practitioners in both cases, and one of them was particularly good at pretending to "just wanting to work things out", even though I kept finding things she was doing that would work an advantage for her client against my client's interests, and luckily I was able to thwart the improvisations on her part.

When I arrived back at my office, my paralegal wanted me to go through mail and messages that had come in before she left the office, even though this meant overtime on her part. HALLELUJAH! I finally have someone in my office who understands the importance of going through mail and calendaring and phone calls each and every day!

I had another client, by the way, who called to say he was going to sue me. Pissed me off so bad. I called him and gave him his comeuppance. He sent an apology email. I'll finish his case, but I have learned a lesson. And here it is:

When you do a case for a substantially reduced rate, or for free, the client will treat you like you are his servant, and threaten to sue you or report you to the state bar if anything appears to be amiss. YOU ARE HIS SLAVE.

From now on, no more favors for clients.

I have a good idea! Today was so much fun, let's do it again tomorrow!