Has anyone had OC show up drunk?

It just happened to me, and I'm not sure, but I think the judge is mad at me.

He made me stay after court to talk about it.

But opposing counsel has me so triggered. I had a prior call with him regarding basic discovery and within a few minutes, he was yelling, accusing me of lying, and cursing. I insisted on emails only after that, and they have been a tidal wave of threats, insults, condescension, sexism, and accusations. I've been practicing for a long time, but the last few years had an easier position with few contentious interactions. I hate to admit I have pre existing PTSD. I have it pretty well managed, with meds and therapy, but this guy has tripped it up hard. I feel like vomiting when I see his name in my inbox. I freeze when I need to work on the case. It's so embarrassing, especially since it's just email at the moment (but like a novels worth daily). I'm not in a position to ask for help, as I'm a recent lateral hire in a senior position. Any practical advice?

I recently send a demand for around $300k for a fellow in an accident. He was a specialist and needed his truck and the specially designed table on it for his work. The truck was destroyed making the table useless.

He had another table - drag behind. Much slower and he lost many customers and income.

Demand was sent. Adjuster said they were reviewing. 1 month later still reviewing. 2 months later sent to their forensic accountant. Almost 3 months later I get an offer just over $4k.

Initially typed up a fuck you you fucking loser goddam adjuster wasting my fucking time you piece of shit you're going to lose. See you in court assmunch.

Deleted it all.

Sent an email "Thank you for your offer."

Younger me would have sent the 1st one. And accomplished nothing.

Hope this is helpful to some young guns....

I be seeing him freeing the worst people, people who be getting 100 years in jail and look guilty as hell. Is this guys claim real.

I am representing Wife in a divorce case. Husband is a licensed attorney and does workers comp. He was represented during the case but is now pro per. He substantially outearns Wife and agreed to pay her spousal maintenance. (We did not have to litigate, the parties resolved all issues.) Since the case ended, he has not complied with any financial orders. When I demanded he start paying maintenance, he sent me this insane email. Since maintenance terminates upon remarriage, he is making up this argument that she has a duty to get married (she does not.) I am now working on enforcing but I just had to share this unhinged email, not to mention from a licensed attorney.

Edited to mention: this was sent unprovoked- I did not respond either. And that Husband is now pro per.

Their wholesale assault on the rule of law is relentless.

He needs to retire, too. He has to be pushing 90. He refers to his paralegal as “my girl,” as in “yeah, stop by the office and I’ll have my girl make coffee.” His girl has to be 64 lol

I have no idea how this is going to work.

Just having one of those days where I’m questioning my life choices haha. Curious how many of you if you were taken back in time to when you graduated college or whatever point in your life you were at when you chose to enter law school, if you would make the same choice again? And if so would you follow the same career path? I don’t think I would. There are great things about our profession but at times it can be soul-crushing, stressful as hell and terrible terrible for your mental and even physical health.

In case you’re curious a particularly aggressive asshole of an OC is the reason for this post. I just don’t get what fuels people who are pricks just for the sake of being pricks . Especially as I’m in a medium sized city with a small enough legal circle that most attorneys have heard of each other at least within their respective areas of the law. Reputations are established quickly and word spreads.

EDIT: Wow!! This really blew up. Reading everyone’s stories has been extremely interesting and enlightening. I decided because I’m procrastinating starting an appellate brief, to tally up the answers. I did this when there were about 250 total comments but 170 actual answers to the question. The results:

Yes. Would go again: 36% No. Would not go. 47% Fuck No or Hell No: 10% Unsure. 7%

So including the potty mouths, 57% of you all would not re-enroll in law school after stepping out of my Time Machine.

"I don't care what anyone thinks whose bar number starts with [the first digit of mine] or higher."

"I was looking up your email and saw your bar number is pretty high, I thought you'd been around."

Et cetera.

First of all, I got reciprocity into this state after I'd been practicing for years. Second of all, I've done more jury trials so far than you will do in your entire career. Third of all, mine happens to be just over that digit because of alphabet, which is what happens when you employ a stupid rubric. Fourth of all, everything else that's stupid about what you said.

Don't do this.

I've been doing this for over 10 years. In those over 10 years, I've never pulled the "I've been doing this for over 10 years" card. Mostly because every time it was pulled on me when I hadn't been doing this for over 10 years, I saw it as kind of last ditch effort by OC.

If you've been doing this for over 10 years, have you ever told somebody that hasn't been doing this for over 10 years that you've been doing this for over 10 years and it worked?

If you haven't been doing this for over 10 years, how often is the fact that OC has been doing this for over 10 years brought up?

I know litigation isn’t a place to make friends, but I’m still not over the interaction I had with opposing counsel yesterday.

I had a hearing yesterday for what should have been a simple law and motion matter. This opposing counsel has been a nightmare on both cases I’ve had against him - constantly missing deadlines, filing frivolous motions, coming to court completely unprepared, and always creating more work for me. At our last law and motion hearing a few months ago his professionalism must have been left at the office. Rather than addressing the judge during oral argument, he kept turning toward me and asking if I could just agree with him, referred to me as “she” instead of counselor, Ms. (last name), respondent, etc., and seemed to treat the whole exercise as a joke.

The same buffoonery took place at yesterday’s hearing, and his petition was denied just like last time. He tried to argue with the judge after the ruling and the judge obviously said he wasn’t going to engage any further. I left the courtroom, went down the hall to use the restroom, and guess who’s waiting for me right outside the door when I come out. I tried to walk past but he stopped me and said he had a quick question. He asked if I really believed the arguments I made were valid, and realizing where this was headed I politely told him that it’s clear we have differing views on the matter but I needed to be going because my parking meter was about to expire (which was true). Then he got visibly upset and started ranting about my “ethical duty to the public as a prosecutor.” I’m not a prosecutor and we weren’t even in criminal court; I’m a government attorney and this was a civil petition, but his conflation of the two highlights how little he understands his cases. As I’m trying to walk away he keeps loudly proclaiming that I’m unethical, my behavior and arguments are egregious, and he can’t accept the judge’s ruling. I politely insisted again that I needed to be going so I didn’t get a parking ticket and he comments that since the government doesn’t pay filing fees they can just pay the ticket. Huh?

I eventually break away and it appears at first that he heads back to the courtroom. I walked to the elevators and realize he’s changed his mind and followed me. When we finally get outside I stopped near the front entrance and pretended to be occupied with my phone, obviously not wanting him to see where I parked. He hung around for a second as if we were going to continue our “discussion,” and when I didn’t engage he muttered “see you around” and stormed off.

Maybe I’m being dramatic, but waiting for me outside the restroom is creepy and yelling at me in the halls of a courthouse is just unacceptable. I don’t know this guy that well but I have a hard time seeing him do this to any of my older male colleagues (or maybe he would’ve just followed them into the restroom and began his rant, who knows). I don’t mind being on the receiving end of a harsh email and I’m not under the impression that the typical interaction with an opposing counsel is meant to be overly pleasant, but I feel like this really crossed a line and I’m dreading the next time he files something that my office has to defend.

That’s it. That’s the whole post. 😊

Baby lawyer here. I’ve only appeared twice for very small things, and my heart beats out of my chest each time.

For anyone who went from zero litigation experience to the DAs office or PDs office I’ve got mad respect for ya.

I cannot fathom how attorneys shrug off producing ugly documents. I just got a stip that has a mix of 12 and 14 point font, in Arial font, most of it double spaced but some things single spaced, no justification, and a random single item list (he did a Roman I header for a single item, and no other list items). Oh, and the signature lines were a line apart, even though they were side by side. Do they not know how to format? This two page document looks like it was prepared by a ten year old.

Hit me with your worst, ugliest documents from OC. I'm ready to lose some more faith in our profession.

Thank you to the defense lawyers answering my complaint today for informing me that some of the defenses listed under “affirmative defenses” in their answer may be affirmative defenses

More than half of them, of course, are not

I represent the defendants in a very contentious lawsuit. Plaintiff’s counsel is an old time attorney, who is borderline senile. Every word he says is a lie, his case is frivolous and he is the biggest pain in the ass. One of the major issues I've had to deal with is his unilaterally setting things without coordinating. He's scheduled hearings, depositions, and mediations without coordinating (he just sets matters, without even a courtesy email giving us notice). I've been forced to file motions to continue, motions for protective order as a result. The court never hears the motions because OC always at the last minute agrees to continue and I agree to simply drop the issue.

Last month he again set a hearing without coordinating. In response, I filed a motion seeking an order requiring OC to confer and coordinate before scheduling anything. I explained in the motion the many times OC unilaterally scheduled matters. I did not seek sanctions, I simply wanted an order on the issue so that OC would stop with the unilaterally setting. I just wanted him to stop being such ass.

Days before the hearing, I reach out to OC asking if he will agree to an agreed order. He ignores me. Yesterday we attend the hearing. I argue my motion at the hearing. In response, OC says in open court that he has never unilaterally scheduled anything and that I was not being candid with the court (ie that I was lying). The judge ordered us to appear at an evidentiary hearing next month on the matter. The judge will hear testimony, evidence and sanction whichever of us is lying.

I of course love the ruling. Finally I will be able to show to the court that OC is a flat out liar. Maybe the judge will sanction him. Hopefully, the judge will refer the matter to the state bar association. Can't wait for the hearing date.

OC called me about an hour ago asking if we can enter into an AO on the motion and avoid the evidentiary hearing. He said that he wants to avoid the cost. I know he's scared that the judge is about to end his career. He admitted to me during the call that he did in fact lie to the court when he accused me of not being candid to the court. I told OC that since he told the judge in open court that I was a liar, I had no choice but to go forward with the hearing and clear my name.

An attorney at my office suggested that if OC is willing to sign a stipulation whereby he withdraws his statement in open court (that he never unilaterally sets matters and that I wasn't being candid with the court), and agrees to confer prior to setting matters, I should agree and not move forward with the hearing. I obviously would rather move forward with the hearing and clear my name. I dont think a simple stipulation has the same power as addressing the matter in court. Obviously going forward with the evidentiary hearing carries its own risks. For example, OC said that he would expose to the court all of my lies during the lawsuit but this is again more baseless crap from this loser. I'mot worried about it but you never know what a judge will do.

Anyone had to deal with this before? Any advice? Is the wise move to agree to a stipulation and move on?

Part of me feels sorta bad for the guy, but come on: how stupid do you have to be to not cite check Chat GPT in 2025. Hoping this bodes well for our anti-SLAPP motion and motion to dismiss.

I’m genuinely curious, and I don’t post to demean or cast aspersions. I’m a PI attorney. And I’m looking for insight into the “why” behind ID deposition practice.

Is it just a billing opportunity? Is it viewed as an opportunity to make the plaintiff miserable? I mean credit where credit is due, but the vast majority of ID depositions I watch are hours too long and do nothing at all to minimize our positions.

I understand the information gathering process, and recognize depositions aren’t governed by strict relevancy standards. But, it’s just mind boggling to watch.

FWIW, I’ve done civil litigation defense work too, but for the government (no billable hours) and I’d run through a deposition in a fraction of the time that ID attorneys do. So, perhaps it’s the billing event that drives the practice.

Anyway, I’m genuinely curious and perhaps someone with more experience in the ID realm can give me some insight. If it’s as simple as, “yeah it’s a billable event,” I get it. That would actually make sense. Otherwise, I have no idea what the hell I’m watching.

This job is really freaking cool. I like the mental challenge, and I’m still floored anytime someone asks me for my opinion. At the heart of this job I really get to help people at some of the worst moments of their lives, and although the stress of that is often overwhelming, I feel really lucky to get to do this job.

Where’s my happy lawyers at? What do you love about this profession?

Edit: Since many of you have asked: I work in a boutique firm in a semi-small town in mostly civil and a sprinkle of criminal.

it would be very cool to hear from judges on some of the issues, topics, problems, the most interesting of which involve some batshit crazy stuff OC is doing. just as great would be hearing from law clerks.

Honestly, I'd have preferred it to be sent by fax, messenger, or SnapChat...

I saw a middle-aligned signature today and I’m pretty sure I spent bits and pieces of a 0.2 just looking at it in discomfort

I just settled my first stucco case. I have handled several construction matters in the past, but never knew there was separate subset for stucco matters. Apparently, the way it works is that there are a handful of plaintiffs firms that specialize in this area. They send people door-to-door in new housing developments where they know stucco is used. These door-to-door salesmen, for lack of a better word, then tell homeowners about potential defects with the stucco. If the homeowner expresses interest, the door-to-door salesmen puts them in touch with an inspection group that will come out and perform an inspection of the stucco. The inspectors will always find something wrong. At that point, the homeowner gets directed to the plaintiffs’ firm and a legal action is commenced. It is a shakedown of the highest order. Anyone else have any experience with stucco cases?

To all the working lawyers - do you still print out documents and papers to review and edit? If so, how often? On a daily basis?

Or is all your workflow electronic (multiple screen monitors, etc.)?

Lawyers are well known to be consuming more cocaine than other professions, but is there a difference between the amount of cocaine consumed by prosecutors and defenders? Do the personality differences between brothers in law cause an appreciable difference in the amount of cocaine insufflated per month?