In the past 10 days I’ve received numerous e-mails from friends, colleagues and previously anonymous readers asking why it’s been almost a month since my last blog post.  All of those e-mails brought a huge smile to my face, and a heartfelt thank you goes out to each and every one of you for (1) reading my posts,  and (2) actually being “concerned” about my whereabouts.

The reason for my absence is simple: a five-day medical malpractice trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court from March 23rd to March 29th.  Now, some of you might be asking yourself: “But, wait, if the trial was only five days, why have you not posted in over three weeks?”  Let me explain.

This might sound obvious, but being in trial is hard.  You are in front of a judge and a jury who demand every single ounce of your attention.  It’s adversarial, which is exhausting in and of itself.  And even when the day ends, the work does not.

For example, on Tuesday the 23rd we spent all day handling pre-trial motions and picking the jury.  Opening statements and our first witnesses were scheduled for Wednesday.  So, on Tuesday night I spent several hours with an expert preparing him for his trial testimony.  When I got home that night, at about 12:30 a.m., I still needed to refine my direct examination of the witness I was preparing for trial, which lasted until around 2:00 in the morning.  I was up again at 6:00 a.m. to walk the dogs and start all over.

Yet, being in trial is a walk in the park when compared with the week and weekend before trial.  The level of anxiety that accompanies trial prep is nerve-wracking and unsettling.  On top of that, you still have other cases that demand your attention.  There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.  To call that time before trial grueling would be an understatement.

So, that explains my absence for the two to three weeks following my last post on March 9.  However, you may be asking yourself: “Well, what about last week, Keith?”  Let me explain again.

The first “official” day back at the office after a lengthy trial is my worst nightmare.  I know that my desk has been bombarded with mail, new cases, new medical records and new assignments from my superiors.  In the back of my mind I also know about the two or three tasks that I really wanted to get done before trial started, but that I didn’t get done because of prep time.  Whatever relief comes with knowing a trial is over is immediately consumed by what’s on my desk when I get back to the office.

In this instance, when I got back to the office on the afternoon of March 29th my desk was simply invisible.  Papers were everywhere, binders of new medical records were sitting on top of my keyboard, memos were stacked in my chair, and my in-box was overflowing.  Moreover, my voice mailbox had four messages in it, and my e-mails took five minutes to download.  To make a long story short, I spent all of last week “digging out.”

So, there’s my explanation.  It’s not real impressive, but it’s the truth.

Trial time is indeed tough.  But when you get an excellent result like we got for our client it makes it all worth it.

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