Grey skies are gonna clear up....Timber!!!

I had a feeling as we closed out the work year of 2010, that 2011 was going to come on like gang busters, and I proved myself to be more than correct. With a very busy trial schedule during the first quarter of the year, it stands to reason that the three of us would all have our hands pretty full. Little did I know just how much, and to what extent, I'd actually be involved.

It's no secret in the legal world, that various documents are heavily relied upon as an integral part of either the defense or prosecution of a case. This aspect of my job is no more evident to me, than when we are preparing for a final hearing and even more so as we go to trial. Although all of the support staff finds themselves standing in front of the copy machines at least a few times a day, in the weeks leading up to an appearance before the judge, the amount of copying that is required of us often times goes beyond reasonable imagination. It has been my experience to spend almost an entire day, producing such large stacks of copied documents, that I am unable to carry them back to my desk all at one time. Although I am not the only one heard to make this statement, we commonly refer to the hours we stand in front of those copiers, as "killing trees".

Every time it's necessary to load 3 more reams of paper into one of those monster copiers, inside my head I hear myself saying "Timber!" as yet another tree has fallen for the sake of our cases. When dressing in the morning, I almost feel like I should be reaching for my plaid flannel shirt, as I join the legions of lumberjacks as they sacrifice the forests of the world, to support my own paycheck. It may seem silly, but I've thought of how my future grandchildren will be affected as we deplete these limited paper resources, during our lifetime. Yes, I have spent endless hours mindlessly standing in that wonderful little copy room, it's the nature of the business. The machines never move quite fast enough for me, when I'm in the middle of one my major document production projects.

I must say, that in this advanced world of technology, the court systems have made great strides to economize the amount of paper involved in the everyday legal grind. We have many electronic filing programs in place, where we are no longer required to mail every single document to all legal counsel involved in each case. I am always pleased when instead of wasting reams of paper, I'm able to simply push a button, and our somewhat voluminous pleadings are received by the court, via an online filing system. However, that is not yet the case, when we eventually prepare to go before the judge to argue our case. On those particular occasions, it's right back into the copy room for days on end, to once again fill an unknown number of legal file boxes with documents, the likes of which you cannot even imagine.

Please know, that unless you have been involved in any legal proceeding, you can never truly understand how much paperwork is involved in several years of litigating a lawsuit. At times, one single litigation file has been known to completely fill an entire four drawer filing cabinet. It is difficult to comprehend the effort necessary, for document production only, to bring just one case to trial. In the last two days, this has been my world.

Next week, our appearance before the judge is scheduled to occur over the course of two days. The attorneys I work with are busily preparing witnesses and their legal arguments, to present the company's defense of the issues at hand. On many occasions, my assistance has been necessary at trial and I've always enjoyed being a part of this group effort. However in this case, being on a smaller scale, early on, it was decided that my presence would not be required. My participation would be solely in preparing them before they traveled across the state to attend the proceedings, which suited me perfectly....until late on Monday when they changed their minds...and now I'm also traveling to Naples.

On any other occasion, I would be more than happy to spend 3 days out of the office, attending a trial or lengthy hearing, allowing the company to pick up the tab for hotel and meals for the duration of the business trip. However, the timing could not be worse as I'll now be packing yet another suitcase (we know how much I LOVE doing that), the very same week I'm preparing to leave on our annual anniversary/birthday cruise. It's not often that work gets in the way of my vacation schedule....however, this was not the way I had envisioned spending the last week before we go away. I'll be returning from this business trip only 36 hours before Roger and I leave for Miami....fun, fun, fun!

In a nutshell, here's the issue---I am the type of person who, prior to leaving the office to go on vacation, prefers to leave my desk with all the loose ends wrapped up. Papers filed, phone calls returned, inbox empty, reports submitted and generally, my desk in a presentable state. I somehow doubt that this will be the case, when I'm walking out the door of my office next Friday. It may seem a bit silly on my part to be concerned about something so insignificant, but this is how I roll.

In an effort to keep myself "up" regarding these unforeseen turn of events, I spent a good portion of yesterday, walking back and forth to the copy room, singing under my breath..."grey skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face" because all I can do, is grin and bear it....and/or rack up a bit more overtime over the next 8 days of work!

So the next time you have an occasion to stand in front of a copier, think of me working my way through yet another box of paper and whispering "Timber" with a great big "smile" on my happy face :)