Peter and I represent a civil-defendant in federal court in New York. New York federal court is easy about permitting counsel to appear at hearings by telephone.
Today we had a 10:00 a.m. hearing. Peter is in the office at 7:00 a.m. preparing for a deposition. The court calls. "Where are you guys?" the judge’s secretary wants to know.
10:00 a.m. their time is 7:00 a.m. our time. We forgot to factor that in when we calendared the telephone appearance.
Peter knows little about the substance of the hearing. So he calls me at home. "Jon. An emergency. The court needs you to call now!" Etc.
Fine. I call the court on my cell phone. I explain the situation. I take the blame. (This is called "falling on your sword.")
The hearing goes fine.
But I wasn’t expecting to participate in the hearing until three hours later. So, when I call the court, I’m in pajama bottoms, a t-shirt, and house-slippers. I’m surprised at how natural it felt talking to a judge about impeachment rules and the law of indispensable parties while in my PJs.
I had to remind myself to use formal court-language. It’s easy to slip when you’re not dressed for court, but for morning coffee.
All in all, we caught some breaks. Peter happened to be in the office early so that he was there to take the judge's secretary's where-are-you-guys call. I just got in from getting the morning paper when Peter called me. The night before, I had fixed a problem with our password for accessing court documents on-line; so, during the hearing, I could look on-line at the court-papers we had filed, to remember the issues.
We work hard to make sure we never miss a court appearance. We very, very rarely slip. With a little luck, we didn't today.
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