A Good Theory

Yesterday morning in court, a client asked me, "How do you deal with all the stress of this job? I'd be so frustrated if I were you, dealing with all these [pro per litigants] and judges and so many different cases."

I said to her, "I try to remember that I am not my client. I do my best for them here in this building and in my office, but when I go home, what happens in their cases doesn't really affect me all that much."

"You leave it at the office," she agreed. "That's great. I wish I could do that."

Given that it's quarter to two in the morning and I've been awake for an hour thinking about how frustrating has been to have a rash of decisions go against me that should not have because of a particular judge deciding matters based on seemingly random facets of cases that have nothing to do with the issue at hand -- deciding an eviction based on my client's performance as the administrator of a trust, for instance -- I think I should admit that maybe my remarks yesterday were a good theory, but not entirely accurate.