Wasted effort?

One of the tough parts about being a lawyer is that a lot of work you do feels like it goes to waste.

Case in point: I blogged earlier (see "Fourth Amendment" post below) about a suppression issue based on the cops' illegal entry. I worked hard on the brief to make sure I had the right caselaw and the right arguments.

Today was meant to be the big decision day: I went to court with the lawyer who would argue my brief before the judge, who would then issue a ruling. I was excited, because my competitive fire was burning. It was like a Sunday morning in the fall: my team was either going to win or lose.

We first went into the judge's chambers with the prosecutor. (That's standard operating procedure.) That's where the wheels came off my expectations. To make a long story short, the judge didn't like the prosecutor's opposing brief, and wanted him to redo it based on some new cases. The prosecutor didn't like the thought of that at all. We left the judge's chambers, and the prosecutor immediately made us a reasonable offer to settle. He knocked the charges down to a misdemeanor for which our guy will serve a couple of weeks (only because of prior convictions). Our client was pleased as punch with the offer; he accepted, and that's all she wrote.

And poof, that's the end of my brief. Never argued, never ruled on. I'll file it away in my desk and never see it again, because this case is history.

In reality, my brief was not wasted effort. It merely illustrates the chess game of litigation. The prosecutor obviously respected the brief enough that he didn't want to fight anymore; he just wanted us to go away. And he offered a deal that would get us out of his hair. Had I written a crap brief -- had I slacked off and half-assed it -- the prosecutor may have been unwilling to deal. He might have decided to fight instead. But apparently, the brief was just good enough to scare him off.

I would have preferred to fight the issue. But our client was happy with the deal, and that's all that matters to us. That's good enough for me. It's just too bad that I have to wonder what would have happened...whether we would have won or lost.