Work Bits

Yay for more work rants.

Update from the prior post about subpoenas. I just found out that said sec'y who didn't know how to fill in said subpoena with a person's name or an accident date, failed to have said subpoena actually signed and stamped by the Court before she sent it out to the hospital and police dept. for the records. Now you might (and I mean MIGHT) get away with that with a small doctor's office, and that's even up for speculation considering HIPPA laws these days and doctors' general awareness of said laws. But no way is a hospital or a police dept. going to respond to a subpoena that's not signed and stamped. I mean really. I just can't believe this sec'y didn't know the basics. We had to redo the subpoena, get it signed/stamped, and re-served.

But then again, I asked her today if she sent out a document we just received yesterday for an estimate on its translation from German, and she honestly did not recall getting it (forwarded by my sec'y as I was out) and forwarding it onto the translator. Its like total swiss cheese in there. She honestly can't recall what she did the day before. I feel like I'm dealing with Momento. Its a good thing email can document these things.

Not that my own sec'y is any better sometimes. I specifically asked her to look through the file to find a witness phone number my boss wanted me to contact for a trial appearance (we represented non-party plaintiff employer on plaintiff's third party injury claim). I suggested starting with his depo transcript, and if it wasn't there to check discovery, attorney notes, correspondence. It wasn't in the depo. She asked Swiss cheese sec'y, who said she saw it in the attorney notes file (I can't believe she remembered that). However, the attorney notes file was missing (possibly accidently taken by my boss on his business trip - he forgot to take it out of his briefcase). Did she look elsewhere? No. Oh she said she did, but she clearly didn't because when I looked through the correspondence folder later, I found it. Of course, it would have been nice if someone had maybe typed up a list of the witnesses with their address and phone on a computer document. I do that because I if I lose the paper, I can look it up easily. But no one else thought to do this.

About the only thing that makes my sec'y better is that I know she doesn't know things. I know she doesn't know what an "affirmative defense" or a "new matter" or a "cross-claim" is. That's why I have to refer her to a specific document #1, cut and paste paragraphs 10 to 19, then go to specific document #2, cut and paste paragraphs 25-30, then specific document #3, etc. and I do it in order. She can at least follow those orders.

My boss assumes his sec'y knows what all those things are, so he just says "do standard affirmative defenses/new matter claims and std cross-claim for indemnity" and she has no idea what that is and of course, comes and asks me because she doesn't want to ask the boss. I do the work, and I bill for it. If my boss asks me why I billed for something (which he rarely, if ever does), I'll explain.

I suppose I could tell him about things as they are, but I'm not entirely sure it'll do all that much good. Besides, it helps me get to know the cases ahead of time, so I'm not caught too off guard when he asks me a question about the case (that he hasn't previously told me about).

I have to remember to keep these work rants very general, not be specific about any names, cases, etc. Was at an employment law seminar for two days and was reminded about confidentiality challenges in the electronic age, and the importance of googling oneself now and again. That's rather an interesting thing to do, its amazing what info gets out on the web. Like, how in the world did my name get attached as a "debt settlement attorney"? I have no idea, I've never done that sort of work. I also had to contact a few places that listed by work address as an attorney with my home address. Asked to have the address changed. I don't mind people having my work info, but not to publicize my home address.

I'm pleased that my facebook profile shows almost nothing for the public. I will always keep it that way, no one gets to be my "friend" unless I really know who they are. I've declined invites from people who said they knew me in high school or even elementary school and I didn't recall them. I've made some MMORPG people "friends," some that I've never met IRL too, which is about the farthest I'll go.

Of course, pretty much everything has the potential to be exposed with a subpoena.