The Missing Lanc, or, Youuuuu Knitwit....

Lancaster Village Court.

The client's ticket says appear tonight at 7. My fax to the court said I would appear tonight at 7.  "Tonight," for those of you reading later or on the other side of the International Date Line, happens to be Wednesday.  But look! The sign on the door is quite clear!



Well, there was a holiday a couple weeks ago. Maybe it threw the schedule off.  So up the stairs to the Dispensary of Justice. Everything's closed. Not a clerk or even security guard in sight.  But the place started hoppin' a few minutes ago, for yes, Village Hall is busy on Wednesday nights- with the Stitch Witch Knitting Group.  They were very kind. They even invited me to join them.  I said, no thanks, sharp pointy things wouldn't be a good idea for me right now.

It's been like this most of the workweek, these little annoyances that, in this case, was likely to be a two-hour-of-wasted-time annoyance.  Monday, I heard from another traffic client. (Mind you, I only do these because they're usually quick and easy money for me and time and license-point-savers for the clients referred to me. Tonight, not so much.)  I'd sent her the first form needed so that at least the client doesn't have to show up in court. In many courts, I don't either. Sometimes, I even find this out before I get there.  But I'd read the client intake form wrong and had to send it again. I did, and told her, any other corrections, just make them on the document. By that, I meant by "hand." Using "ink." Or possibly "correction tape." No, to this digital generation, she could only think to insert the correction as a comment into the Adobe document. The third iteration was correct, but corrupted. Finally, I sent it in Word, and magically it came back signed. We'll see if I can avoid a four-hour round trip cluster on THAT one.

I also contacted another client Monday who had a hearing the next day, which I'd been retained on months before and filed, with notice of the date (THAT one was yesterday, Tuesday) sent to her weeks ago. I heard nothing from her; I did her from the other side, who ultimately lawyered up but only after making jokes about the town name where she lived. (What's so funny about "Cheektowaga," Georgia Lady? YOUR state's biggest landmark is a KFC joint called the "Big Chicken.")  Anyway, client waited until the day before to tell me she wasn't interested in proceeding anymore. My ass lost no skin in this- I got paid the same, and freed up time yesterday that I should've, I dunno, spent calling THIS freakin' court to foresee they put the wrong date on the ticket.  But it just boggled that people could wait until the last minute.

Which, of course, they are not alone in.  Because I used some of my freed-up time yesterday stressing about papers in a case that had a hearing date preselected for July 25th. (That's a Thursday, for those of you keeping score at home).  We set that date weeks ago.  Normally, you send your papers in at least a couple of weeks ahead of time, to give the judge and opponent lead time to review them but also so you can require any opposing papers to be submitted a week (versus two days) in advance.  You can serve papers on as little as eight days notice, but what rude idiot would do that?

Sorry, no Internet here so I can't download his picture.  I began to worry that they were expecting me to file the opening salvo, so I sent a letter in to the judge, copying the opponent, making sure I had it straight. I sure did: Rude Idiot promptly responded that he was going to file his shit today, on the minimum amount of notice.  Just to be safe, I began drafting my documents even before seeing his, and made a note, as I was wrapping up right before 3 p.m., that it was, well, 3 p.m. on the last day and he must be doing this to sandbag me. (For the record? They were time-stamped around 3:38 this afternoon and I got the email heralding their arrival a bit after that.)  So now I get to screw around with the opposition tomorrow, a day where I've already booked a bunch of things because, hey, hadn't heard from ya:P

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Welp, four minutes to 7, and I think they are clearly Not Showing Up.

Maybe I should go join the group.  I could use a hobby other than whining. But then, there's all those supplies to buy: I guess that would make the new skill....

wait for it....

a purl of great price.