LEX FUGIT-AFTER THE SHUTDOWN IS OVER

 

On this blog I have reminisced-maybe that's the wrong word, as it is indicative of a certain measure of affection.  I don't look back fondly at all my experiences in the legal game.

But as always, I digress.  Many of today's young Detroit area attorneys won't remember the days of judges in the Lafayette Building (or the Lafayette Building at all, for that matter), judges in the Old County Building (which was actually occupied at one time), catalog cases, pay phones, and premises liability claims.  But they will remember the cattle call of Friday morning motion call in Wayne County, as recently as March of 2020.  Those days may be gone, or will at least be fundamentally changed, when the COVID 19 shutdown ends.

While I had the Zoom app on my iPad before March 24, 2020, I used it mainly for continuing legal education  webinars.  Zoom is now the name on all Michigan's legal lips.

Mediations, settlement conferences, depositions, and some motions are now being done using Zoom.  I have been on a video conference call with 15 participants since the shutdown, and it has worked pretty well.

And when all parties are notified to log in to the proceeding at one time, this can be a great tool.

But, what happens when you have 17 or so judges, each with 40 or so motions on a Friday docket, all scheduled to go at 9am?  Now that may not work so well.

Will or can we go back to the old system, especially when there will be a backlog of a month or more of unheard motions?

Probably not.  How will you maintain social distance in places like the 3-5 elevators that may be in service at an given time, accessing the courtrooms?  Those elevators are packed every Friday morning.  The photo above shows a crowded elevator, but it doesn't do the CAYMC justice, no pun intended.  The picture below more accurately depicts conditions on Friday mornings.

The elevators are crammed to bursting with humanity when they leave the first floor, but according to Newton's Fourth Law of Physics, for every person that gets off on an upper floor, 2 more are able to get on.

So, how do we deal with this?  My guess is that local court rules will change so that oral argument of motions will no longer be automatic.  Motions may be decided on the pleadings as a matter of course, with oral argument something that can be granted upon request of the parties or the court.

And what happens to the attorney who doesn't file a timely (or any) answer to a motion, but shows up at the hearing trusting to luck to avoid or temper the worst aspects of a probable adverse ruling.  Seat of your pants flying will become more hazardous.

I think it is pretty clear that courtroom motion argument practice (basically unchanged for generations) may be a thing of the past.  

So, attorneys with P numbers in the high 70s and low 80s, welcome to Lex Fugit.