Courts

Lawyer Gets Court-Ordered Extension To Watch Baseball Playoffs

Do we really need extensions for baseball?

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Every few years there’s one of these stories where some attorney seeks and — improbably — is granted a stay so they can watch their team. Generally speaking, it’s a championship game appearance that requires travel to a neutral site and necessarily puts the lawyer out of pocket on the day of a hearing. What doesn’t generally show up is an attorney seeking a filing extension to watch games on television.

The Department of Justice consented to the motion, which Judge Collyer granted. I suppose the sport itself is all about dragging things out unnecessarily, so this is very on brand.

Zoe Tillman captured the relevant language of the motion in a tweet.

The attorney, citing a desire to continue watching the Washington Nationals playoff run with a nine-year-old, wrote that, “The nine-year old and counsel wish to continue to stay up late watching baseball and to attend tomorrow’s game, if it is necessary. Counsel’s attendance at each is required for supervision.” Except the game wasn’t necessary because the Nats swept the series. Get your ass back to work, buddy!

Facetiousness aside, it’s worth taking a second to consider what this motion says about the state of modern litigation. If we’ve reached a point where the standard briefing deadlines can’t accommodate taking four hours from time to time to watch a game, we’ve got more serious problems as a profession. We shouldn’t have to rely on judicial intervention to achieve the bare minimum of work-life balance.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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