Judge Gold's Mindfulness Campaign is Already Working!

DeniedasAbsurd

Last week at the FBA luncheon Judge Gold delivered a tremendous message of mindfulness in the practice of law, and we're already starting to observe concrete, positive results.

For example, after I served a purely tactical 57.105 motion on opposing counsel the other day, the lawyer called me blabbering on as usual about my "bad faith."

Rather than getting into a shouting match about professionalism I simply asked "how does my motion make you feel?" and we suddenly had a really nice dialogue about organic yogurt and green tea.

So I think David Pollack's skepticism is unwarranted.

Also, per Dennis Kainen's question, I see judges are likewise starting to jump aboard the mindfulness bandwagon.

Here's a recent order from Magistrate Judge Brown that denies a motion for clarification "AS ABSURD":

The Court finds this motion totally disingenuous. One need not be a lawyer to understand that all responses to all discovery propounded by plaintiffs as of [December 21, 2010] shall be delivered on or before Monday, January 31, 2011 (emphasis added), means all responses to all discovery propounded as of the date of said order. While defendants suggest that they "seek clarification" - no clarification is needed. Perhaps it might be worth pondering ... what part of "all" do you not understand? But - it doesn't end there.

Defendants - in an attempt to somehow confuse the obvious - suggest that because they weren't seeking an extension in the motion for document production they weren't sure if this order pertained to same. There are two problems with that absurd argument: (1) the deadline given to defendants was already an "extension" since it was more than thirty (30) days from the date of  the order - much less from the date the discovery was propounded; and (2) if the confused defendants didn't understand this, and they didn't (by their own admission) ever seek an extension for the document production - why did they wait until almost one month after that deadline to file this motion?

The deadline for completion of discovery is in May, 2011. Therefore, and the Court being otherwise fully advised in the premises, it is hereby ORDERED AND ADJUDGED as follows:

1. This motion for extension is GRANTED. The motion for clarification is DENIED AS ABSURD.

This seems harsh I agree, but think how much worse this Order could have been!!