An attorney for a governmental entity set a hearing affecting one of my appointed clients without filing a Notice of Hearing and without consulting any of seven or eight other professionals, including at least four attorneys.  I got 43 hours advance notice of it by e-mail.  When I called her to advise that I am unavailable, she excused herself by saying that she’s required to have a hearing within seventy-two hours of filing a certain pleading.  I pointed out that she and she alone controlled when she filed that pleading.  Had she surveyed the others involved, she would have had information as to our availability, and could have chosen to file the pleading so as to trigger the 72-hour requirement coincidental with our availability.

In her defense, she did ask the judge to adjust the hearing time so that I could attend, but the judge would not.  She called back and told me that the hearing would go forward as scheduled and seemed genuinely perplexed at my outrage.

I spent a good ten minutes telling her how tired I was of government lawyers acting without regard to the impact of their actions on private appointed counsel and, most importantly, on the Constitutionally protected rights of citizens.  I got absolutely no sense that she cared at all that my fifteen-year-old-client’s rights as a child and as the mother of a child, will be bandied about in the courtroom without her appointed counsel.

Why, you ask, do I recount this in my blog about learning not to complain?  Simple:  because I’ve vowed to be accountable in this public venue when I transgress.  There can be no doubt that my castigation of this government lawyer can be categorized as complaining.

I don’t regret my actions.  As I told this young lawyer, I’ve practiced law one year longer than she has been alive, and I’ve seen abuses like this scores of times.  On most occasions, I try to work around the difficulty created by the other person’s choice. But once in a while, I cannot  let such callous disregard pass without comment.

So — sue me.  I complained.  I think the fact that I complained about injustice should redeem me.