Page 11 of Maddy's Justice

Marc got up, went to the door and yelled out to Jeff, “Hey, be sure to keep exceptionally good track of your time. We’ll bill them for it.”

“I always do,” Jeff said. “Barry bills my time. So does Connie and, guess what? So, do you. You would know that if you ever looked at your bills before signing them.”

“Oops,” Marc quietly said.

He sat down at the table and Barry asked, “You didn’t know that?”

“Um, sure, of course. It just slipped my mind,” Marc answered.

“Anyway,” Marc said trying to start over. “How do you handle this? What’s the process and procedures?”

“Well,” Barry said, “you start by listing all the discovery and from whom. Then you start doing discovery. Then more discovery. Then, more discovery until finally, if you’re satisfied, if you’ve turned over every possible rock, you bring a motion for summary judgment. The court will grant it if the facts are not in dispute and the law says you should win. That will not happen with this kind of case. The facts are totally in dispute.

“Once that is done, in a couple years or so, you go to mediation to try to settle it. Then, if you don’t settle in mediation you get a trial date. When you show up for trial the judge tells you to find a conference room and settle it.

“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. You need to check with your client about their employment terms. It may include mandatory arbitration. You better hope not. The arbiters are normally liberals trying to get on the bench in Hennepin County. They won’t be too sympathetic to a high-buck law firm versus women being sexually harassed.

“But, the really good news is, with this case and these clients, you will have billed them a half a million bucks and you go home smiling.”

“It’s that easy?” Marc asked.

“Yeah, right,” Barry said, a touch of sarcasm in it. “Jeff and Connie can handle most of the initial written discovery. The goal will be to bury your opponent in a blizzard of paper. Plus, she’s gonna want to put a microscope up the ass of the Stafford, Hughes firm. You’re gonna spend a shitload of time fighting that. You may want to hire a law school intern to do legal research for you.”

“Especially since you hate it like poison,” Connie interjected.

“It’s boring,” Marc said. “Besides, if you read enough of that crap you start to believe the Men in Black movies are documentaries and that the judiciary has been taken over by illiterate space aliens. Although, that’s a good idea, hiring an intern. How much do they cost?”

“A good one, twenty bucks an hour,” Barry replied.

“That’s not bad,” Marc said.

“And you can bill their time for fifty bucks an hour,” Barry said.

“We can make money hiring someone to do research for us?” Marc asked looking at Connie. “Why haven’t we done this before?”

“We generally don’t have clients who like to pay for it…” Barry said.

“…there are services we can and some of us do, use,” Connie interjected.

“… and legal research is not something you like to bother with too much anyway, remember?” Barry added.

“That’s not true. I have Jeff look up stuff for me all the time,” Marc replied.

“What now?” Marc said.

“I’ll call Melanie and have her set up a conference room and schedule all of the lawyers on Troy McGovern’s team for interviews. No recordings, no stenographer.

“In the meantime, I’ll give the complaint to Jeff. He can go through it and start drafting interrogatories. He’s pretty good at it,” Connie said.

“What should I do?” Marc asked,

“I suggest you go shopping for a nice engagement ring. We’re gonna need Maddy. At the very least, crawl on your hands and knees and get her forgiveness,” Connie answered.

“What did you do?” Barry asked with a large grin.

“I don’t even remember,” Marc quietly said.

“Something stupid?” Barry mockingly asked.

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