The email says the motion was granted. The attorney says the hearing was continued. The docket says an order was entered. Someone has already updated the calendar.
Great. Now read the order.
It sounds ridiculously obvious, doesn’t it? Yet in the rush of a busy legal practice, it is remarkably easy for someone else’s summary of a court ruling to become the ruling itself.
“The judge continued it to December 12.”
“The motion was denied.”
“We won.”
“The court gave them 20 days to amend.”
“The CMC was continued, so everything moves.”
Maybe. But what does the order actually say?
The Summary Is Not the Source
Legal professionals receive information from everywhere. An attorney returns from a hearing and reports what happened. An electronic filing notification announces that an order has been entered. A docket entry contains a short description. A colleague forwards an email. Opposing counsel sends a cheerful message explaining their interpretation of the ruling. All of those things may be helpful.
None of them replaces the order.
Because the order may say that the motion was granted in part. The hearing may have been continued, but another deadline remained unchanged. The court may have given a party 20 days to amend, but the order may specify what triggers those 20 days. The judge may have announced a tentative ruling at the hearing but modified something before issuing the written order. The court may have imposed a condition nobody mentioned. Or tucked into the final paragraph may be the sentence that changes what everyone needs to do next.
That sentence matters.
“We Won” Is Not a Calendaring Instruction
One of the most dangerous forms of shorthand in a law office is the perfectly understandable attorney report: “We won.” Excellent. Now tell me what happened.
Was the motion granted in its entirety?
Was only part of the requested relief granted?
Was something denied without prejudice?
Was leave to amend granted?
Was a deadline imposed?
Was a future hearing set?
Was one party ordered to give notice?
Did the ruling affect another pending date?
Is the ruling effective immediately, upon entry, upon service, or upon some other event?
“We won” may be a perfectly good description of the result. It is not necessarily enough information to manage the file. The same is true of “we lost,” “it was continued,” “they took it off calendar,” and “nothing happened.” In legal practice, something almost always happened. Our job is to figure out what it means.
Read Past the First Paragraph
There is another trap: opening the order, seeing the expected result, and stopping.
Don’t. Read the whole thing.
The operative language may not be where you expect it. The court may explain its reasoning before stating the actual disposition. Different issues may receive different rulings. Directions to the parties may appear near the end. And sometimes the most important information for the legal professional is not the court’s legal analysis at all.
It is the sentence that says:
Plaintiff shall file…
Defendant shall serve…
The parties shall appear…
The hearing is continued to…
Counsel shall meet and confer…
The court retains jurisdiction…
Those are action words.
When you see them, the question should immediately become “What does this trigger?”
A deadline?
A calendar entry?
An assignment?
A filing?
Service?
Notice?
Preparation for another hearing?
Communication with the client?
Something else that now needs to happen?
That is where reading becomes case management.
Compare What You Expected With What You Received
Here is a habit worth developing: before reading the order, remember what you thought was supposed to happen. Then compare that expectation with what the court actually ordered. If they match, wonderful. If they do not, stop.
Do not quietly “correct” the calendar based upon what everyone assumed would happen. Do not decide that the court must have meant something else. Do not disregard an unexpected provision because nobody mentioned it after the hearing. Flag it. Ask the question. There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation. There may have been discussion at the hearing you did not hear. Counsel may already be aware of the issue.
But occasionally you will hear, “Wait. It says WHAT?” And that is precisely why you read the order.
Read It Before You Calendar From It
Calendaring from an order deserves particular care. Before entering or changing dates, identify exactly what the court ordered and what event triggers the applicable deadline. Do not assume that every deadline runs from the hearing date. Do not assume that a continued hearing automatically moves every related date. Do not assume that the date mentioned in someone’s email matches the date in the filed order. And never let an existing calendar entry become more authoritative than the source document from which it supposedly came.
When the two conflict, investigate. A calendar is an extraordinarily important tool. However, it is not primary authority.
This Is Bigger Than Orders
The same discipline applies throughout legal practice. If someone tells you what the local rule requires, read the rule. If someone says the statute gives you 30 days, read the statute. If someone says the notice changed the hearing date, read the notice. If someone says the contract requires written notice, read the contract. If someone says the judge’s standing order requires courtesy copies, read the standing order.
Secondary information is useful. Experience is useful. Institutional knowledge is useful. The attorney’s direction is obviously important. But when the actual source is available, there is enormous value in looking at it yourself. Not because you distrust everyone around you. Because you are part of the team responsible for getting it right.
You Do Not Have to Know the Answer to Notice the Problem
Perhaps you read an order and something does not make sense. You do not know whether the language creates a deadline. You are unsure whether a particular date should be recalculated. The order appears inconsistent with something said at the hearing. You do not understand the legal significance of a particular ruling.
That does not mean you should ignore it. You do not have to know the answer before you ask the question. There is a tremendous difference between making a legal determination and recognizing that a legal determination may be needed. A strong legal professional learns to recognize that moment.
“I noticed this language in the order. Does this affect our deadline?”
That is not overstepping. That is paying attention.
Go to the Source
Legal practice moves quickly. We rely on one another. We summarize, forward, report, delegate, calendar, and communicate all day long. We have to.
But every time information passes from one person to another, there is an opportunity for something to be shortened, interpreted, assumed, or simply missed. The source document gives us the opportunity to reset. So, when the email says the motion was granted, the attorney says the hearing was continued, the docket says an order was entered, and someone has already updated the calendar, that’s great.
Read the order. Because a summary tells you what someone thinks the order says. The order tells you what the order says.
Categorized in: Legal Procedure
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