Business as usual outside of no more flying to certain clients. Meanwhile managing partner who writes with the thick pen is on a flight right now to a depo. No working from home yet unless explicitly approved by managing partner who is explicitly against working from home. So I guess business as usual for me. Just had our first confirmed exposure in a Miami courthouse. Would expect that changes things for most other firms.
One judge told my partner that they're going to start doing all hearings telephonically here. I assume all civil trials will get pushed. I wonder what will happen for criminal jury trials.
No idea if it's legit, but the word around Seattle is mandatory work from home starting next week. Half of our staff has been getting that set-up this week. Have oral arguments tomorrow at 10:00 AM, would really like for the Judge to have that telephonically.
Update, all jury trials are suspended. Office next door to us won’t close until someone in our building gets a confirmed case. When told that was their plan, managing partner called them pussies and said he’s still coming in even if that happens. Welp. Guess we are going down with the ship.
Jury trials getting postponed here. Thank goodness I settled that one case last week. Defense would have never paid up if they’d thought they’d get a reprieve on the trial date.
The TN Supreme Court dropped an order suspending all in-court proceedings except for a confusing list of exceptions yesterday without much notice or explanation so the next few weeks are going to be really fun
GENERALLY SPEAKING I have a lease with a written two-year term with start and end dates stated, and a statement it becomes month-to-month after. Per these two state laws, would the lease be considered month-to-month since it is longer than a year and not notarized/acknowledged or is the term valid since it is for a specified time? RCW 59.04.010 Tenancies from year to year abolished except under written contract. Tenancies from year to year are hereby abolished except when the same are created by express written contract. Leases may be in writing or print, or partly in writing and partly in print, and shall be legal and valid for any term or period not exceeding one year, without acknowledgment, witnesses or seals. RCW 59.04.030 Tenancy for specified time—Termination. In all cases where premises are rented for a specified time, by express or implied contract, the tenancy shall be deemed terminated at the end of such specified time.
Mandatory work from home beginning tomorrow. They are even locking the elevators (but not stairs). Came in to grab some files, office supplies, and computer equipment today. Leaving as soon as I finish some stuff up, which may end up being around 5pm.
Our office is still open but I am not going in this week. Have good remote-in system and I can handle most things fine at home.
my office is open me on the other hand, I am exhibiting leadership in these trying times by staying home.
Just from those statutes, I would think that the second one would apply. Year-to-year doesn't mean the same thing as two year defined term.
We're letting everyone work from home except for the receptionist. Sorry, Sandra, but someone has to answer the phones. I'm still working from the office though.
I wonder how many claims are going to be made on worker's compensation policies for catching coronavirus at work
Firm sent out a vague "you can work from home with partner approval" email yesterday. My partner followed that up with an extremely passive aggressive email talking about how if anyone requests to work from home, the billable hour expectation doesn't change and that billables are down across the board, etc. Then another email today about how he expects a mandatory work from home order state wide and he hopes it doesn't happen.
Anybody who wants to work from home is encouraged to if you have any thoughts. Just upgraded our VPN/bandwidth settings so paralegals and staff are already WFH. Although my boss is encouraging coming to the office a little heavy for my taste. I always keep my door closed and self-isolate in the office regardless, so may try to come in and stay tucked in my corner. But I also expect Seattle to have stay-at-home restrictions in the very near future.
Business as usual for us as far as coming into the office and a bunch of other things. Supreme Court canceled all non-emergency hearings in family courts across the state, so those aren't of concern for the foreseeable future. We postponed some mediations today. All office conferences have been converted to telephone calls. I made the unpopular suggestion that we should select a restaurant with a drive thru for lunch so our runner isn't standing in a crowd of potentially sick people getting our lunch. Based on the looks I got, my guess is that idea gets scrapped forever tomorrow bc it limits options. We still have people coming in to sign stuff though. Doesn't seem like the best plan given recent developments, but that call is above my pay grade. I have the tech to work from home, but my boss isn't a fan of that so I'll likely be in the office until there is some government order otherwise.
Not exactly. No E-filing in any sc family court (only certain counties have it in Circuit Court) so we need originals and actual signatures to file anything (whether attorney, party, or witness).
Opposing counsel started the depo of my client at 9am today and didn't finish until 5pm in a premises liability case. 45 min lunch break. Usually those are like 3 hours ish.
Opposing counsel wanted to take the depo of my liability expert in a police pursuit case in Wisconsin in a few weeks. Trying to see if he'll agree to do that via video conference depo.
I would have started wildly coughing at hour 3. also who the fuck is still having depos? I cancelled everything.
We still have docket calls. Judges admins emailed us on upcoming cases to see if any of the lawyers, parties, or witnesses were ill or exposed. We said no, and admin said be at docket call.
All of ours in state court are canceled into April. Federal Courts are doing “screening” at the door.
whats-in-house-coronavirus-relief-bill-for-small-businesses.html Re House Coronavirus Relief Bill In the FMLA context, it really helps employees and could put a big cost on employers. It gives you tax credits to help pay for the leave but I don't know that that comes even close to helping you pay for it.
They need to pass a ubi bill and some form of a pause in mortgages/rent/etc. I feel like anything else is a half measure that doesn't fully grasp how fucked our economy is about to be.
I feel certain in saying that there’s going to be a lot of people sick because of absolutely idiotic policies on working from home at a lot of law firms.