Judge This Painful

So, I traveled to San Francisco to present oral argument in a case I have before an "en banc" panel of Ninth Circuit judges. This means that 11 of the more than 20 judges are picked to hear a case on rehearing. We won with the panel of 3 judges last year. This is a big deal. . . kind of like the Supreme Court. It is rare. So, we have 30 minutes per side to argue, and because another Nevada case got consolidated with ours, 3 of us on the defense have to share the time. We carefully agree to take 10 minutes each, but the judges don't respect that. They keep asking the first attorney questions, and won't let him sit down. He went first to address a factual issue, but never gets to it until he is about to sit down. Attorney # 2 gets up with 12 minutes left. I am going 3rd as clean up. At 6 minutes I start to stand, but the attorney doesn't make a move to sit and the judges keep asking questions. Finally, he sits down, the red light comes on, and before I can say anything, the Chief Judge announces my time is up, and invites me to sit down. UNBELIEVEABLE! That is the control judges have. Thank goodness my clients (retired architect and his wife) were understanding. She laughed, thinking of the expression on my face when I was told to sit down. She then created a new MasterCard commercial: "Flight to San Francisco: $377. Hotel room at the luxurious Best Western Americanna: $249. Being told by the judge to shut up and sit down: Priceless!" I'm just hopeful that we win the case. If it is appealed to the Supreme Court, the other attorneys have agreed I get to go first. They do really feel bad.

Anyway, I went to dinner the first night in China Town, and had great Italian at a little place called Caffe DeLucchi in Little Italy. Then enjoyed some Italian pastries from an older woman who spoke broken English and I'm sure came here as a little girl from the "Old Country." It wasn't all that bad.