I’m tired of Office 2007

So, apparently, the Court system switched over to Microsoft Office 2007 sometime around the 1st of the year. So all of the schedules I receive from Johnson County are in docx format. I have Office 2007 on my work computer, but I have a Mac at home with Office X (2004). For those who don’t know, Office 2007 documents are not automatically compatible with earlier versions of Office. This means that I’m not able to open documents in the docx format from my home computer, which makes posting the schedules a little difficult, at times. So, I apologize for that. I imagine there’s a competition or antitrust lawsuit out there somewhere because of this and I am totally on board with that.

FYI – COURTHOUSE CLOSINGS

This will come as no surprise to most of you. A call this afternoon to the Benton County Courthouse yeilded an automated message giving their normal business hours and telling people that they are currently closed and don’t know when they’ll return.

Also, I just received an email stating that the Linn County Courthouse will be closed Thursday and Friday.

I was supposed to have pretrial conferences at both places tomorrow. I wonder how they’ll deal with scheduling issues that arise from the unexpected closings.

If I hear of any more in the area, I’ll post them.

Family Ties

I have a cousin who is the police chief of a suburb of Des Moines. His brother (also my cousin, of course) got married last Saturday, so I had a chance to see the whole family. My police chief cousin likes to refer to criminal defense as the dark side, which is fine. I can take a little ribbing about representing the underbelly of society (not all of them are, but a good portion of them, in my experience). One of the funny things about my conversation with him over the weekend is that he told me I shouldn’t be too hard on the police officers I have to question.

I’ve met a lot of very nice police officers. My cousin is one. I represented one in a civil matter last year and she was very nice. The officers I’ve deposed have all been somewhat sheepish during the deposition. Wondering what I might be trying to get them to say, I suppose. But police often have a reputation of being bullies and preying on the defenseless. I get sucked into that frame of mind, sometimes.

I get to play the other side, too, prosecuting traffic violations for North liberty. I see a whole different side of police officers in that capacity. Sometimes bravado, sometimes astonishment at the idea that someone would plead not guilty to the citation they wrote. I get sucked into that, sometimes, too.

It makes me tired.

Great event for lawyers and law students…

The Honorable Judge Russell will be speaking at a Johnson County YLD event this Friday. His topic will be tips on trial practice and courtroom procedure. Lawyers and law students are welcome to attend. More info here. Please RSVP as asked in the flyer so we have enough food. This is the first of what we hope will be a successful series.

A little behind…

So, I got a little behind on all of this blog stuff. I may not have even commented on the Supreme Court opinions from last Friday, even though an astonishing 75% had something to do with municipal law. So, I apologize if there’s anyone out there who relies on my posts for information, entertainment or just a feeling that you’re better and smarter than someone else. I’ll try to do better.

Termination of Parental Rights and Absentee Clients

I sat through a whole day of termination of parental rights trial yesterday. My client is the father of one of the kids and he was in federal prison for most of the child in need of assistance action. I finally met him a couple weeks ago when he showed up for an in-court review. This was after the termination petition had been filed.

He thought he might try to fight the termination at that time, but very quickly dropped off the face of the earth after that day. Actually, I guess his parole was revoked and he’s heading back to prison, but I never heard from him after that review in February.

So, I was stuck in this trial. I asked no questions of any witness, made a short professional statement concerning my understanding of my client’s situation and otherwise sat. Not really a fun time in the basement of the Linn County Courthouse, but, hey. The State will pay me for it.

Law Day

I had a chance to attend some of the Law Day festivities at the Johnson County courthouse today. I sat in on a discussion concerning the need for a new “justice center” in Johnson County. Some of the conversation centered on the fact that there’s a lot of public knowledge about the need for a new jail because it costs money to house inmates somewhere else. On the other hand, there’s very little public knowledge about the need for more courthouse space because relatively few members of the general population have a reason to go there.

The only way we can let people know about the problem and get public support for a solution is to tell people about it. So, I urge attorneys, law students, judges, litigants, jurors, court staff, county attorney’s office staff and anyone else who’s noticed that there’s a lack of space at the Johnson County Courthouse to let people know.

Now, that may not be the easiest thing to do. You’re sitting around with friends talking about the price of cheese and you launch into a diatribe about the need for more space at the Johnson County Courthouse. You might need to find different people to hang out with next weekend. But there has been, is and will be a lot of discussion about the need for more jail space; and there’s no reason that the need for courthouse space should be a separate discussion.

Ouch

So, I’m having all four of my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow afternoon. The procedure starts at 1:30 and I can’t eat for six hours beforehand. I like to tell the story about how the dentist told me when I was 15 or so that I should consider having them out. That was two days after my sister had her’s out and she was at home lying on the couch, still in agony. So, I put it off.

Fifteen years later, I’ve decided to do it. I scheduled it for a time that I didn’t have anything on my calendar for a couple of days, then I’d have the weekend, too. Of course, two things were scheduled for me on Friday and I’ve had to find people to cover for me. I had one person lined up to do everything, but she ended up getting something scheduled at the same time. Then I had a different person lined up, but he ended up with something scheduled during one of the times. So, now I have two different attorneys covering for me on Friday.

Besides that, I’ve been trying to get as caught up as possible before having the procedure. That doesn’t always work out, does it? Now I have a new felony client and I scheduled a bond review for tomorrow morning.

Medical appointments and procedures have basically become a necessity for humans. How do they fit in with the practice of law? The answer: They don’t. One of the partners in my firm had emergency back surgery last fall. He ended up rescheduling one trial from October until December, and another one until May of this year. Not real great or the client, but necessary.

So, I’ll have my laptop and a number of files with me at home the next few days. I’ll be checking my email and voicemail occasionally. And I’ll be trying to get things done. I just hope none of the work I need to do interferes with my recovery. I’ll have to be sure to make time to put down my work and watch Oprah or Days of Our Lives or other such ridiculous things, just so I don’t lose sight of what’s most important – my health.

If I post anytime between 3:00 and 6:00 tomorrow afternoon, please disregard it. It will most likely be gibberish induced by the drugs.

Calling Young Lawyers

Anyone interested in being involved in a young lawyers division of the Johnson County Bar should contact me. A small group met today and talked about the kinds of things we’d like to do. We’ll take whatever input anyone has, but we’re looking at lunch meetings for now, with speakers of interest to a broad base of attorneys (judges, court staff, etc).

Trial Recovery

It’s been a week since I had a full-day trial. I wasn’t exactly on the ball about getting ready for it, so I was scrambling at the end. That scrambling made me put off other things that I needed to get done. So, I was way behind when I got o the office on Friday morning.

Today, one week after the trial, I am finally feeling like I’m caught up. I’ve talked to one of the partners about being ahead of things in the practice of law. He doesn’t believe it’s possible. He says he’s always behind and when he started practicing he asked his dad, also a lawyer, how to deal. His dad’s response: “Get used to it.”

Moral of the story: If there’s a way to be on top of things in the practice of law, I have not found it.