Thursday, July 06, 2006

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS SAYS FED UP FEDERAL JUDGE

Sometimes even the Best Clearwater Defense Lawyers can't agree to be cordial. One angry and fed up federal judge in the Middle District of Florida which includes St. Petersburg, Largo, Clearwater and Tampa Bay, recently found a unique but not quite new form of alternate dispute resolution for two bickering attorneys unable and unwilling to agree to a location for depositions to be taken. The judge ordered (see below) the two attorneys to meet in front of the courthouse and to engage in one game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and for the winner to decide where the depostions would be held.

Perhaps this would be an excellent way to resolve more of our civil and criminal legal disputes. Here's the gist of the Order:
This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff's Motion to designate location of a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition (Doc. 105). Upon consideration of the Motion – the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts – it is
ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED.
 Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. 
If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one (1) game of "rock, paper, scissors." The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location for the 30(b)(6) deposition to be held somewhere in Hillsborough County during the period July 11-12, 2006. If either party disputes the outcome of this engagement, an appeal may be filed and a hearing will be held at 8:30 A.M. on Friday, July 7, 2006 before the undersigned in Courtroom 3, George C. Young United States Courthouse and Federal Building, 80 North Hughey Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32801.

One wonders if Rock Paper Scissors will be featured on future Bar Examinations in Florida. Your favorite Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney has seen only one other blistering Judge's order that is as good as this one, in which an attorney who imagines himself to be Ernest Hemingway is denied permission to continue a murder for hire case so that he could travel to Key West for the Hemingway lookalike contest.