"Looks Like I'm Out of Judges"

I haven’t been blogging because of my schedule. Too much work, not enough time. The end is in sight though. Or rather, the end was in sight. I was supposed to start a six or seven day felony trial this morning, and my schedule looked pretty bearable after that.

The case is in Maricopa County Superior Court, and it’s assigned to the master calendar. I’ve complained about RCC before. The master calendar isn’t much better. Whereas RCC seems designed to make sure most lawyers appear lost at all times prior to an indictment, the master calendar seems designed to rush every case to trial after an indictment without letting the parties see the same judge twice. I haven’t figure out why anyone would want the parties to see a new judge every time, but that seems to be the goal, and the folks at the superior court are doing a bang-up job.

I was supposed to show up in front of the presiding judge at 8:00 a.m. this morning to get it set in front of a trial judge and begin trial. I was early, but the prosecutor got stuck in traffic. I got to watch some motions to continue by defense lawyers and motions to dismiss by the state. The first case or two that was actually ready for trial got assigned to a judge. A few after that got assigned to commissioners. By the time I was ready to go, the presiding judge said he was out of judges and reset the trial for tomorrow. Same place, same time.

It feels kind of nice to have some free time, but I’m a little pissed I worked so hard this weekend to make sure I was completely prepared to go today. I would’ve loved to have relaxed on Saturday morning instead of spending that time reviewing the state’s exhibits again. I’m in a trial kind of mood, and that’s a hard mood to change. I really hope trial goes tomorrow. If I get up at the same time, put on another suit, make the same commute, and show up in the same courtroom only to get my hopes dashed again, I’m not going to be happy. I do wonder, however, how long it’s going to take before my life begins feeling a little bit like Groundhog Day.