The Right Stuff
Mar. 12th, 2013 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogToward the end of the day yesterday, I did the right thing. I may not win out on account of it, but it got a little righter anyway by the end of this morning.
The state court system in New York is (and this is a technical term) "strange." Every county has at least one lowest-level state trial court within it, strangely known as the "Supreme Court." Each outside New York City also has a "County Court" within it. Administratively, their functions are combined, not only with each other but with the operations of the County Clerk of each county. The County Clerk is an elected position in each venue, mostly devoted to DMV transactions, real estate recording, and, these days, gun stuff. Lines have been out the door since mid-January, when the state passed new gun control and gun owner privacy law changes. None of that has changed the official requirement that lawsuits be initiated, and all fees be paid, at the county clerk's office rather than in the offices where the judges actually have their chambers and courtrooms. In many places, including Rochester and Buffalo, those offices are always (or at least almost always) in totally different buildings, and inter-office mail between them is painfully slow. As is non-intra-office mail, especially since the gun thing went into effect. You always, ALWAYS, file things in person when you can, and unless a payment of fee is involved, you deliver them directly to the judge.
That's the general background. Now to the case at hand: X sued my client, Y. I answered. X then made a motion to expedite the case's resolution; that required a fee to be paid, so X sent those papers to the County Clerk. In time, I responded to the motion; I wound up needing extra time, which X's lawyer graciously gave me. (Said lawyer is in New Jersey; another stereotype bites the dust.) Since there's no fee to file an answer to a motion in New York (at least not yet), I delivered my answering papers, in person, directly to the court-chambers office, bypassing the parade of ammunition registrations down at the County Clerk.
As the moving party, X was entitled to the final submission, known as a "reply," which was due into court yesterday. No fee is required for that, either (yet), so X's lawyer should've sent the reply to chambers. Instead, not knowing the geography, he sent it to the County Clerk, copying me. I knew, as soon as I saw the address on the original, that his papers had about a .000001% chance of getting to the judge by the time the case was scheduled to be heard. So, with no hesitation whatsoever, I called him and returned the courtesy- telling him that his submission was almost certain to be delayed in the hailfire of pistol permit paperwork, and that he should fax/email/whatever his papers directly to chambers. He thanked me and did so.
Which led to the call I got from the judge's law clerk earlier today. Not to tell me that they hadn't received HIS papers, but to tell me they hadn't received MINE. The ones I delivered to the right place at the right time.
"Oh," he said. "Probably the secretary still has them on her desk. We'll look for them; if I need another copy, I'll call you."
And he never did. So the bottom line of the whole tale is, they only knew I'd submitted opposing papers because I assisted in getting my opponent in submitting his, which made reference to them.
The client may win or lose, but justice, still, was served either way. And that makes it a happy ending for me.
The state court system in New York is (and this is a technical term) "strange." Every county has at least one lowest-level state trial court within it, strangely known as the "Supreme Court." Each outside New York City also has a "County Court" within it. Administratively, their functions are combined, not only with each other but with the operations of the County Clerk of each county. The County Clerk is an elected position in each venue, mostly devoted to DMV transactions, real estate recording, and, these days, gun stuff. Lines have been out the door since mid-January, when the state passed new gun control and gun owner privacy law changes. None of that has changed the official requirement that lawsuits be initiated, and all fees be paid, at the county clerk's office rather than in the offices where the judges actually have their chambers and courtrooms. In many places, including Rochester and Buffalo, those offices are always (or at least almost always) in totally different buildings, and inter-office mail between them is painfully slow. As is non-intra-office mail, especially since the gun thing went into effect. You always, ALWAYS, file things in person when you can, and unless a payment of fee is involved, you deliver them directly to the judge.
That's the general background. Now to the case at hand: X sued my client, Y. I answered. X then made a motion to expedite the case's resolution; that required a fee to be paid, so X sent those papers to the County Clerk. In time, I responded to the motion; I wound up needing extra time, which X's lawyer graciously gave me. (Said lawyer is in New Jersey; another stereotype bites the dust.) Since there's no fee to file an answer to a motion in New York (at least not yet), I delivered my answering papers, in person, directly to the court-chambers office, bypassing the parade of ammunition registrations down at the County Clerk.
As the moving party, X was entitled to the final submission, known as a "reply," which was due into court yesterday. No fee is required for that, either (yet), so X's lawyer should've sent the reply to chambers. Instead, not knowing the geography, he sent it to the County Clerk, copying me. I knew, as soon as I saw the address on the original, that his papers had about a .000001% chance of getting to the judge by the time the case was scheduled to be heard. So, with no hesitation whatsoever, I called him and returned the courtesy- telling him that his submission was almost certain to be delayed in the hailfire of pistol permit paperwork, and that he should fax/email/whatever his papers directly to chambers. He thanked me and did so.
Which led to the call I got from the judge's law clerk earlier today. Not to tell me that they hadn't received HIS papers, but to tell me they hadn't received MINE. The ones I delivered to the right place at the right time.
"Oh," he said. "Probably the secretary still has them on her desk. We'll look for them; if I need another copy, I'll call you."
And he never did. So the bottom line of the whole tale is, they only knew I'd submitted opposing papers because I assisted in getting my opponent in submitting his, which made reference to them.
The client may win or lose, but justice, still, was served either way. And that makes it a happy ending for me.
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Date: 2013-03-16 02:29 pm (UTC)And I'm afraid to even try to understand how your court system works, in case I need a week off for this purpose. LOL