I'm sure that Thursday, Oct 4, 2007 will be an all-time record for my law practice. I got 3 felony cases dismissed in one hour. I like stats and was going to keep track of felony charges dismissed during the life of my practice, but I messed up and missed the date when the 100th felony was dismissed and its been impossible (and impractical) to spend the time and effort to go back and figure out when it was. Maybe I'll have it togther for the 200th felony charge dismissed, if it hasn't already happened. (Note to those not in the trade: one case can often have several felony charges. So when the 3 cases were dismissed that was somewhere between 6-9 felony charges.).

If it were not for statistics life would flow by unnoticed. Did you ever see one of those interviews with someone who "used to be someone" where they pull out their scrapbook and show reviews from their appearance in Wichita in 1953? I've often wondered how they found time to do that. Perhaps this blog will have to do for me, if it doesn't get erased when the company changes policy.

From Astounding Tales, Oct 1957.
Mr. Denson is a mild-mannered lawyer living in a remote rural setting, as many do. Cities still exist, but it is becoming harder to see why. In the morning he arises and after breakfast turns on his computer. There he quickly scans the news from around the world. There are hundreds of on-line newspapers ("feeds") but he has preselected the BBC, China Daily, and the New York Times for his world news. These are available to anyone for free over one of the many satellite transmiters that blanket the earth. For local news he reads feeds from the Times-Standard and Eureka Record, from his county seat, and the Willits News for the adjacent county. If there is time he joins in a local discussion group that he reaches by sliding his finger on a pad below the computer keyboard, then tapping part of it. "Clicking" it is called, for some obscure reason. Here messages are posted from dozens of local people concerning the upcoming Harbor District election, a dispute about a music concert, and gossip about local government officials. After the news, he turns to his personal messages: people from around the world (connected by the world-wide-web, or "WWW", correspond with him. His sister writes about family business on the East Coast, a friend in China discusses her current studies at the University in Xi'an, his wife writes about an upcoming vacation. He will see her later in the day. He chuckles, thinking that he is going to actually see her, and not a computer avatar of her. How old-fashioned. He notes that there are still a couple of billion people on Earth not connected tothe WWW, but the news is that very inexpensive computers have been designed to allow the poorest of the people in Africa or China to connect also.

While reading his mail he has the computer play some of his favorite musicial pieces, selected from a 4000 song personal library he has encoded into the computer's memory. When he turns his attention from the computer to speak, in person, with someone else in the office, the screen blanks and then shows a random selection of photographs he has taken from his trips around the world. He has about 10,000 of them encoded into the computer also. Perhaps he will need more computer "memory" soon.

Our Mr Denson is a philatelist, and goes next to a website where hundreds of thousands of stamps are offered for internet auction. The owners are located all over the world (who isn't, these days, he wonders). Most of his wins are from Britain, but he has gotten lots even from breakaway republics created after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 20th century. The lots won still have to come by mail, which more often than not, has the postage paid by meters printed by the computer. He has won a couple of lots, and instructs the computer to pay for them by bank transfer through something called PayPal.
He remembers that he wants to order some custom US stamps which will display a photograph he took of a friend - he'll get her a sheet of them for her birthday.

Now to business. He taps the keyboard the the pictures vanish. With a few key strokes he checks visiting hours at the jail, where unfortunately a prospective client is housed, and contacts the neighboring county to check on some revisions to their laws about medical marijuana. He sends a message to another attorney a few hundred miles away about a legal issue and remembers he has an actual doctor's appointment. When will the virtual doctor get set up in his area, he wonders.

With some reluctance he turns off his computer, picks up his paper files - another old-fashioned habit he has. Cutting edge attorneys have their files encoded in their portable computers, which now weigh under 5 pounds and each has a computing power vaster than every computer on earth in the middle of the 20th century. But Mr. Denson likes to have some paper around, it makes him feel more comfortable. He still has actual law books on his shelves too. So many attorneys these days just get book design wall paper and use it as a backdrop for their on-screen visuals when they tele-conference. But, there is something to say for the feel of paper and the heft of a book in your hand, he thinks. Probably he is one of the last generation that will know about books. And records, he thinks. Remember them? Now you just tell the computer what music you want and it gets it, billing your bank account for the modest charges. But like film and analog clocks, these are just historical artifacts to the current generation of children. They'll be sorry when a sunspot knocks out the WWW and they have to get by on surface communications for a day or so, he thinks. He's probably wrong.

So the surviving trial got put off because it took so long to get started, if that makes any sense. Its a question of lining up witnesses schedules. Sometimes the most important witness can only come on one day or another and if the trial gets delayed a day or two, the schedule doesn't work anymore.

But in the meantime back to Hue for lunch. Eggs rolls in peanut sauce. Then for the evening a puzzle as to whether it was Mazotti's, the Ritz, or the Waterfront Cafe. The Waterfront Cafe won out, and praise be, there was not a crowd there. We got instant seating at the cozy table with the table cloth. Pork Loin dinner with a Syrah, then a Cab. One more and I'd be calling a cab. The food was quite good, as usual. A nice walk back to the motel via Bon Beniere (spelling?). I finally figured out that all these restaurants are on the same street, within 2 blocks. So is Hurricane Kate's, and Kyoto. Must be the restaurant district of Eureka. Someday when I get a really rich client I'm going to eat at the Carter House restaurant again.

A quick hearing tomorrow morning, then off for a few hours at home before going to Ukiah where all of my Tuesday cases still await me, only now added to my Thursday cases. But, hey, one of my clients booked me into a nicer motel than I usually stay at, I've got some new Teaching Company tapes about the ideology behind the American revolution. Life is good.

So my legal assistant and I are in Eureka for a trial. I had three set for Monday. The DA dismissed one, one pled, and one is still set for trial. We'll know tomorrow about the trial schedule. In the meanwhile, its restaurant time. Lunch was Hue - at 4th and L - really good and fairly inexpensive. Saw a lot of public defenders there - its defense attorney territory. If a prosecutor ate there would someone hang a noose over a table? Probably not. If only they had coke instead of Pepsi. I had a Thai tea today to avoid the disappointment.

Dinner, ah dinner, at the Ritz. My assistant had sushi, but I had Katsu Don. Delicious, with a couple of glasses of Syrah.

And Eureka had a beautiful sunny day - a rarity here I'm told. We are hunkered down in the Townhouse waiting to see if we will have a trial this week, or not. Bon appetite.

The oddest thing about being in Eureka is this. If I want to do on-line legal research what's the best place to do it: 1 - in the parking lot of the Townhouse Motel, 2-In the law library in the courthouse, 3-In the 2nd floor hall of the courthouse where everyone waits for the courtrooms to open up.

Did you guess 2? Sorry, but there is no wi-fi access whatever in the law library. There is a computer (well, a PC) conected to the internet and a printer, but no wi-fi. Did you guess 3? Mixed marks. There is wi-fi on the 2nd floor but you have to pay for it, just like at the airport. $10 a day or something like that. Did you guess 3? Right on, there is free wi-fi access in the parking lot of the Townhouse motel and often after I check out but before I drive away on another mission of mercy, I sit in my car and check my email, look up a statute, and do other wi-fi business.

My question is this: wouldn't it make sense to have wi-fi in the law library?