I was in Baltimore City Circuit Court last week for a half-day trial. Actually, I was in Baltimore City Circuit Court the week before for a half-day trial.

There’s this Seinfeld episode that I love. (I know what you’re thinking – Cord’s going to write about the Star Trek episode. Well, I’m not. Although, George screaming “Khaaaaaan!” is the best ever) It’s the one where Jerry and Elaine are picking up a rental car. Of course, hilarity ensues.

Jerry: I don’t understand, I had a reservation. Do you have my reservation?

Attendant: Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars.

Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation.

Attendant: I know why we have reservations.

Jerry: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation. The holding.

A trial in Baltimore City is like that episode. You get your trial date months before. You put it on your calendar. You have… a reservation. Life is good. You confirm with your client. You confirm with your experts. You confirm with your witnesses. You get subpoenas out.

Then, the day before trial. You call the clerk’s office to confirm your reservation. They tell you that they have no judge available, but to give them a call before they close at 4:30 p.m. (Why 4:30?  How about 5:00, like the rest of the world?) You call at 4:25. No judge. “We’ll call you tomorrow if one becomes available.” You think to yourself, didn’t we have a reservation?

You finally confirm around 12:30 p.m. the next day that, indeed, your case is not moving forward. With any luck, you’ll be able to negotiate a specific date with the clerk’s office to return, something that works for your witnesses, client and experts. Maybe it even will be next week. The clerk’s office did a good job for me – I was able to get to trial the Tuesday after my Friday date. But, there were other people still waiting.

Khaaaaaaaaaaan!

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I can’t promise to make appellate briefs easy, but compared to what some lawyers are doing now, they can be easier.

There are a lot of rules governing appellate briefs — content, typography, number of copies, communications with opposing counsel and deadlines. I don’t often get the chance to dabble before the appellate courts, but every time I do I learn something that I should do to make my life easier. Most of this is probably common knowledge for superstar appellate lawyers, but perhaps something I write will help a newbie in his first appellate assignment. In no particular order:

1. Pay attention to deadlines: There are a number of deadlines in the Rules. I admit that I’ve been caught off guard by the rules of communication with opposing counsel regarding the Record Extract (Rule 8-501). As a result, I had to send opposing counsel a list of the items I proposed for the Extract very late, and I had to hope they had time to look at it and get back to me. Ideally, all of these deadlines should be diaried up the instant you get that first notice from the court. Even better, if you are the appellant, once you get the transcript from the trial (which you should order the instant you decide to appeal) and the copied court exhibits, send an initial letter to counsel informing them of your preliminary designations for the record extract, and asking them for their counter-designations. It doesn’t matter if your proposal is all inclusive — you can still add more documents in the final days of writing your brief. But, you should have a preliminary idea, and this is one less thing to worry about later.
2. Calendar the oral argument dates: The court gives you a number of possible days for oral argument — when you get the notice, put a hold on your calendar for those days.
3. Stipulate to extension of time: Rule 8-502(b) allows counsel to stipulate to an extension of time to file any brief, as long as the reply brief is due at least ten days before argument. Once you get your briefing schedule, send an immediate request to opposing counsel to iron out a stipulated deadline for briefs — you can get a few extra months because oral arguments are usually scheduled so far in advance. I learned this the hard way — I asked for an extension from opposing counsel about two weeks before my due date, one lawyer refused (hey buddy, if that’s your position, don’t ask me for any favors), and I wasn’t left with enough time to ask the Court for an extension. It’s too bad, too. I could have told the court in my motion that “Appellant’s counsel requested a stipulation to extend the briefing schedule, but Appellee refused that request.”
4. Record Extract: I know some lawyers are still putting all of their record extract documents in a pile, and giving them to their assistant to manually page number and copy. Maybe that works for you. But there’s a better way. If you are a “paperless” firm, just copy all documents to a separate electronic folder titled “Record Extract.” If you are not a paperless law firm, collect the documents as usual and have your assistant scan them in to a folder. As you receive counter designations from opposing counsel (I encourage them to e-mail me scanned versions), put those in the folder as well. Then, using Adobe Pro, you can select all of the documents, right-click and then click “Combine in Adobe Acrobat.” The program will ask you to put them in order, and it will make them into one gigantic document. To page number my Record Extract I use LexisNexis’ CaseMap, but there are features allowing you to do this with Adobe, as well.
5. Record Extract II: Another tip on the Record Extract — when you have it scanned in, use OCR (optical character recognition). This will convert it to searchable text which really helps when you sit down to write the brief.
6. Record Extract III: When assembling the final Record Extract, be sure to add a cover page. You can do this electronically, as well, by simply printing your Word/WordPerfect coverpage to PDF, then adding that page to your Record Extract.
7. The Brief: Give yourself two days to outline the general scope of the brief, a full week to research law, and a full week to write it. Then, make sure you have a week after that to ignore it, and one more week to come back and look at it fresh. Really, your process should begin about a month before it is due. Remember, you will always be distracted in the office, so try to take some time to do this from home or on weekends in the office.
8. Get it Printed: When you are done with the brief, print it to PDF, and save it to a flash drive along with the Record Extract.  Take it to your printer, they can download it, and then they can print and bind them for you.

I hope this helps someone. The most important thing if you are new to this process is to have smart lawyers on standby who don’t mind stupid questions. I go to David Kopstein and John Bratt, two phenomenal appellate lawyers who never judge me for my dumb questions (“Does the record extract page numbering include the ‘E,’ or is that just for the citation?”).

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I have been frantically trying to complete two weeks of work in a four-day time frame. For those of us lucky enough to get out of the office (for vacation or otherwise), a few days or full week away from work can fall within one of two categories: 1) rejuvenating or 2) anxiety inducing.

Next week is the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in Ocean City. Hundreds of attorneys and their families will be making the pilgrimage over the Bay Bridge to meet, greet, learn and be merry for a few days. I have somehow become an MSBA Annual Meeting veteran because I cannot recall the last time I have not been to one. I have been to so many that I kind of know what to expect (Come to think of it, I wrote an almost identical blog about this last year…)

In any case, I will spend my time at the beach for work while I also try to relax (would that be “professional relaxing”?). For those that have not given it a try, the MSBA Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to meet attorneys and jurists from throughout the state and to catch up on the latest legal developments.

It is not too late to register, either. If you come, don’t miss out on The Daily Record’s Young Lawyer Happy Hour at Liquid Assets at 5:30pm on Wednesday, June 8th.  A few of the Generation J.D. bloggers will be there (so you can really tell us how you feel about our blog posts).  We also will be blogging from the beach.  See you there – and don’t forget your sunblock.

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About five years ago I created a “technology chart” of all of the Maryland circuit and district courts.

The chart, intended as a handy reference, outlined what technology (digital presenters, DVD players, etc.) the courts had, the process for lawfully getting technology past security, and the rules on cell phones. Back then, the courts were fragmented, and had various policies regarding cell phones. Some courts banned them outright. Some courts banned phones capable of taking pictures.

The rise of smartphones has made those rules unbearable to the bar. Lawyers depend more and more on their cell phones. In the beginning, it was nice to have a cell phone so we could contact our clients and find out why they were not at court when we told them to be there. Once we were able to access e-mails through our phones, they were useful to contact the office for emergency trial research, and to communicate with experts to let them know their testimony was going to be earlier or later than expected.

Now, phones with access to the Internet allow us to perform instantaneous research on potential jurors, to find caselaw through Westlaw or Lexis, and to check our calendars for conflicts when selecting trial dates. If I had to choose between having a legal pad or my phone at court, I would choose my phone every time.

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Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Like most holidays, I’m in the office.

The only two holidays that I try to take off are Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rest of them are fair game for work — Washington’s Birthday (commonly known as Presidents Day, and no, we’re not going to get into a discussion about whether there is an apostrophe and, if so, where it belongs), Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, and so on.

This can be difficult with regard to family life, because my wife, a teacher, gets most holidays off.  So, it’s tough to tell her that I need to go into the office. It’s even harder when, on some of those holidays, the daycare is closed, and my wife then has two children to entertain and care for by herself.

But, taking these holidays off just allows the work to pile up to an even larger level. The one thing I have learned about a plaintiffs’ practice is that the work just keeps coming, and it is nearly impossible to stay well ahead of the tidal wave. So, it’s easier to work a holiday than to make up for taking a holiday off. I’m happier, and I don’t feel so overwhelmed.

Add to that the fact that clients appreciate it when you work these holidays, just like they appreciate e-mails or phone calls after hours. Most attorneys I know work beyond the usual 9-5, which can be a testament to our dedication to our clients.

But occasionally, I will find someone who thinks it’s offensive to work on some holidays, for example, Veterans Day. We certainly should be honoring our veterans. But, is it really honoring them to take the day off work and go shopping, or sit around at home? Could it be said that we are honoring them just as much by taking advantage of our freedoms by working in a chosen profession?

The holidays are important to remind us to recognize, in our own ways, the importance of an event or person. Today’s holiday is an important one — please take time out to find some way to celebrate.

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Somewhere out there is a 2-year-old who needs a tricycle, warm clothes and an Elmo doll.

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the end of the year, and my thoughts often turn to charitable giving, charitable works, and of course, tax deductions. My wife and I try to collect all of the receipts of our charitable donations since January, and determine if we have donated enough. It’s hard to determine what enough is, but I never feel like we have. I had a pretty good run from about January to May, but once summer hit, it tapered out.

So, we have some making up to do. I’d like the Comments section to this blog post to be devoted to readers’ preferred charities (whether a charity that we can donate to, or a charity that requires service). Last week I found out that the Maryland Association for Justice’s charitable arm, the MAJ Foundation, was seeking donations for needy families through the YWCA.

The purpose is to “adopt a family” and to provide gifts for families who might not otherwise be able to have a festive holiday. Individual donors can either give money directed to the purchasing of gifts, or adopt a specific family and buy the gifts themselves.

I chose to adopt a family. Here’s why:

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