HALLOWEEN FOR LITIGATORS: AN ICY (AND SCARY) BLAST FROM THE PAST: WHAT SCARES LAWYERS MOST?
Here we take a look back at the old, old, days of 2017. There was a suggestion there be a “Halloween” post for lawyers – what scares the legal profession most? . Having taken up the challenge I then promptly delegated the task to Twitter (Now “X”). The very first tweet came from Megan Boyd (based in Atlanta, Georgia). This just goes to show that some lawyer nightmares are universal.
“Emailing judge by mistake and then being forced to pretend you meant to invite them to the xmas do”
DEADLINES, COURTS AND IMPOSTER SYNDROME
@CivilLitTweet
So what keeps you awake at night as litigators #lawyerfrights
We have had responses from far and wide (Atlanta to Leeds, and beyond). There is a common fear of deadlines, some judges (unnamed) and some courts (sometimes named).
Megan E. Boyd @LadyLegalWriter
The thought of ever having to present a case at the SDT again
Anything in Central London County Court
Richard Davies @bakkiesdavies
Paperwork
Getting your opponent’s skeleton and realising you’ve missed the key point
I already have limitation nightmares.
Cross-examination of my side’s witnesses and whether I’ll be able to keep a look of dismay off my face.
Emailing judge by mistake and then being forced to pretend you meant to invite them to the xmas do.
Masters moaning that orders aren’t in font size 11 or 12 times new roman.
Whether the e-discovery vendor / software / system deleted all of the redactions we spent weeks doing in the final production
A certain DJ who I’m not going to name on here.
hence my rule not to send a fax to other side after 4.00pm on a Friday unless I really mean to p*** them off
Rebecca Skirrow @Sportybecky84
When someone bandies about the s work (service) when it doesn’t need to be
Finding out that your latest Sussex trial venue has also now closed
Gabor Kovacs @HampshireLawyer
good old fashioned imposter syndrome – that One of the two of us is an idiot and that it will turn out to be me.
Skeletons, surely?
Sunday telcon with panicking sol -then batting with a Defence to 1/3 of the Claim (i.e. middle & off stumps exposed) #itwasntmyfileyousee
One word: clients
Still to this day (nearly 20 years later): memory of faxing advice for client to other side & letter for other side to client
One word. Limitation.
Letters that say “Please find enclosed by way of service our client’s application to strike out your client’s claim”! #Counselgave70%
Pablo Von Helsing @ReasonAboveAll
Reading a transcript of what I remember to be a brilliant bit of advocacy only to discover I’m clearly a blithering idiot.
A certain CJ who thinks spending a quid in a million quid claim is disproportionate.
Time limits!!
Losing to a Litigant-in-Person. [runs away]
Receiving a letter which starts “In 1994 you acted for…” Better call the insurers 
Forgetting to paginate your trial bundle 
george clayton @georgeclayton5
Fish files
Judges who never ran cases axing my costs budgets, summarily assessing my costs and detailed assessment
Can’t be worse then sending an internal email slating the other side and copying the other side in
The ‘test dream’ but forgetting robes before
Stephen Cottrell @stecottrell_law
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Have you been paid for that Trial in 2005 yet ?
Stephen Cottrell @stecottrell_lawYour fees people say it’s going to assessment soon
Waking at 4am convinced you have missed a limitation date; arriving at office at 4.22am to check file.
A client walking in with an injunction on a Friday afternoon.
“Have you seen the supplemental bundle…”
Being threatened by a LIP in front of J and me ignoring it, then J insisting I stay behind at end to check LIP wasn’t waiting
Mine would be not filing your cost budget on time (thankfully, it hasn’t happened to me, and it hopefully never will!)
“Mr Nicholls, this is the court office, the Judge has asked me to call. You’re supposed to be at trial today….”
Usher: “The judge wants to see you in Chambers. Alone. It’s about that tweet.”
Forensic RaconteurUsher: “The judge wants to see you in Chambers. Alone. It’s about that limerick.”
Mary Aspinall-MilesWhen you think you have pressed ‘Save’ & hey presto by dark magic your computer falls over and reverts to an earlier document missing half.
George Peretz QCDiscovering late on that your client kept a detailed (unmentioned, undisclosed & incriminating) diary throughout the saga.
See http://www.catribunal.org.uk/files/Jdg1021Umbro011004.pdf … from para 312.
Discovering that the unprepped summons just hospital-passed to you for that morning is before Master Warren (that dates me)
Watching in fascinated fear as the judicial spotlight hovers critically over a document you had barely noticed before trial
Client pointing to a shelf of files 4 days before the expiry of a final order for discovery (as was), opening one and…aargh
Enter settlement meeting confidently; other side unveils hitherto unmentioned and damning facts; client’s face a picture
After con with very learned counsel, client’s shirt wringing with sweat. Later hearing that he was dead by tea-time
Unassigned list at CLCJC
David Green @itsdavegreen 8 hours ago
“The witness statements were all sent a bit late – could you please make an oral application for relief from sanctions?”
“The bundle was sent to X county court before the case was transferred to Y county court”
And there’s the dream where I open my file for my skeleton argument and every page is blank.
And the interesting variation of this dream where I opened the file to find only photocopies from the Bible. Analyse THAT
Advising your client you haven’t got a cat in hell’s chance, then going on to win
E-filing a skeleton argument then finding out roommate has done *find all* “possession” – *replace with* “death by stoning”
L’esprit de l’escalier – if only I’d said this or that, we’d have won…
How about this one: “The accident was caused by me waving to the man I hit last week.”
I have a recurring nightmare that I’m rdg for my Law degree & never turn up for lectures, tuts or do any work then dont sit the exam. Hell!
I have been having that nightmare since 1981
I have a recurring nightmare of sitting my evidence exam and being paralysed
Being late to court, forgetting papers, leaving White Book on the train, not having a clue what I’m doing – the usual.
I do have regular nightmares (the literal kind) where I’ve forgotten my gown, the bus gets lost, I can’t get to Court…
Beth Grossman @BKGrossman
Sending my skeleton argument to oppo or J with asides to myself (think this argument is a bit rubbish/insert law here) still in as comments
the SRA handing you a list of files they want to review with yours included
Halloween nightmare beaten in court by a LIP
The things I wish I had asked / said in court but didn’t. Like the perfect come back to a remark which only occurs in those sleepless hours
You are in court and you’ve forgotten your script. Stage fright ++++
the usher – at 10.29 – giving you a transcript of the decision (his own) that the judge thinks is really on point
Realising you have brought a HC judgment to court when it’s the CA judgment you wanted as your key authority #£1perpagefax
Instructions to csl to draft claim form and PoC. Limitation expires Friday. Pls advise as to correct identity of the Def
No matter how many years I do this job, I will never escape the lurking paranoia as I drive to Court that I’ve left the brief at home
I stop to check quite often … then stop again to check I checked correctly …
There’s a handy layby two minutes down the road at which I frequently stop for paranoia checks.
A trainee at a previous firm left the case file on the roof of his car as he drove to Court. Luckily the case was won.
Where did the file end up?
Spread across a few miles of farmers fields which the young trainee was forced to wade through whilst recovering the file.
Before the Trainee could recover the file a “concerned citizen” found it. Upset by the DPA breach, they informed the police, client, SRA…
Yes. Also,the nagging concern of having left appliance on in the house, as driving to particularly big lecture, or to a conference 4 paper.Andrew Wilson @pibarrister
Anna Symington @adrsymington
I’m always worried I left the wheelie case in the car park and didn’t actually put it in the boot
Andrew Wilson @pibarrister
A psychologist would have a very good explanation for these differing anxieties
Anna Symington @adrsymington
I have nightmares about the information commissioner. #specificanxietydisorde
Arriving at court, not on list, court venue changed and you & nervous client not told
Issuing Children Act proceedings at DJ level not knowing the subjects were Wards of Court!
I would add: when a client says those dreaded words “it’s a matter of principle for me”
2 recurring nightmares: taking my finals and not being ready for them + finding myself in court with no (or few) clothes on.
I woke up from a worrying dream about limitation and expired court deadlines. It’s 24 years since I was in practice. Then I found this…
My #lawyerfrights has to be getting the “Judicial Raised Eyebrow”. Great when it’s in response to the other sides’ conduct, but otherwise…
Just read the new bits. Now increasing my medication.
I’ve only twice actually been late for court. Not in the last twenty years. And yet, I still dream about it regularly.
Just reading that + my stress levels rose. Night before decision in v impt case I woke up in a cold sweat, dreamt we had only won £10!
I had my very own legal fright when I checked courtserve and noticed which Judge I had for tomorrow’s hearing. Baptism of fire with DJ….
Bernard Richmond @phatsilk_qc
Oh,the unqualified joy of finding a STUPID error in a document I proof-read twice!! #doh
When that happens after hitting send to court doesn’t it get upgraded to a #lawyerfrights
Lord/Lady Justice’s question on what exactly the scope of the appeal is: ‘Grounds of Appeal are unclear’. …..Are they…?
Halfway through 1 day hearing pupil asks why bit of the Companies Act isn’t relevant. Ran to ladies and googled it. It was.
Tony Kazaz |
Must have been forty years ago when I made my first appearance in court as an expert witness. It was a winter`s day with the first snows of winter on the ground in Scotland. With my client`s we were shown into a high ceilinged large room resembling a library to wait for our legal team. It was rather chilly in the room. I then saw a diminutive figure, dressed in some strange garb enter the room from a door from the far end, heading for another door in the opposite corner. I hailed to him and he stopped and came over. I told him we were cold and would he mind to turn the heat up a touch please. He said he would see to it and went on his way.Subsequently we were called in to court and stood when the judge walked in. When I saw who it was, I was horror stricken, it was that diminutive man who I thought was the janitor. The trial started and I was called into the witness box. When I was introduced the judge raised his eyes from behind his pince nez specs and said, yes we have met, I trust it is now warm enough for him here, if not I am sure we can turn the heat up for him “.No amount of heat would have been sufficient for those chilling few words.
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Inheritance dispute where someone turned up at a hearing claiming to be the deceased (turns out they had the same name)
