My Parents Would Be So Proud

Hey Attorneys! Did you know you don't have to actually show up live and in-person for your court appearances? (Wow, I sound like a bad commercial.) That's right, for a (sometimes) small (depending on how soon the court appearance is and which county it's in) fee (you can charge it to the client) you can appear telephonically at many of your court appearances.

Nice Partner does it all the time. He's can't be bothered to fly out of town for a 15 minute hearing, so he appears from the comfort of his office, via telephone, while practicing his golf swing, or balancing on his balance board. Clients don't mind paying for this, because it costs them less than if he'd spent all that time traveling back and forth for the hearing.

Our accounting lady asked that we give her a copy of the confirmation e-mail for the telephonic appearance, and that we write the client number on it. So for the last couple of months, I've been printing out one extra confirmation, writing the client number on top, and routing it to her.

When I first started working here I was told she's a stickler for rules. I figured I should make sure to be on her good side, especially since when I started, I worked for Cowboy, and he was routinely late with his billing, and always wanting favors.

Today Accounting Lady walked by and said to me, "You're the only one who follows instructions."

Then she walked up to Loose Earlobe Lady, and chastised her for not doing what I do. She even went so far as to tell her "Green is the only one who follows instructions and does this." LEL was flustered, both at being called out on not having done something, and for being compared unfavorably to me, who she hates. "Oh, well Baby Attorney didn't tell me" is all she could thing to sputter out in her defense.

Accounting Lady takes no shit. "You're supposed to find out. It's your job to be proactive. You set up the telephonic appearance for Baby, didn't you? Then you MUST have known about it."

I kept my mouth shut. I very well remember the day LEL set up the Tele-court, because she yapped around all morning talking about it to everyone, trying to find out from six different people how it's done, even though you can just call them and they'll walk you through it. And she's loud, so it's not even like I was trying to listen in. You can't help but overhear her.

But that's not the point. The point is that my parents would be proud and relieved to know that finally, after all those years of frustration, somebody thinks I follow directions. Though I'm sure that on some level, they're sad they aren't getting the fruits of their labor.