As I was saying....

I was in the Undisclosed Location pretty much full time the weekend of July 18-19, although some of the posts that appeared that weekend were set up in advance.

I was here toiling away on an appellate brief that was finally filed... yesterday.

I was not at my productive best that weekend; my billing time was steeply discounted accordingly.

I can't share details of the case on which I was working, of course, but I can say that I was not trial counsel and there was a huge, angry, and complicated record to work through and master. When I was finally able to submerge myself fully in the project, there was room for almost nothing else. Let's put it this way: When I got home last night, Youngest Son asked me for identification.

And when a complete draft was finally done in the wee small hours of the morning one day earlier this week I came to the sickening realization that I would have to cut 4,000 words in order to fit the very-strictly-enforced word count limitations in this court.

The key phrase in the preceding sentence is "I would have to cut 4,000 words."

Cut words? The typical lawyer doesn't cut words -- we tend to add words, to pile on words, to pour them out....

Well, if this isn't your first visit to this site, you already know I'm not atypical.

So cutting wasn't easy.

But it's filed... I think... the printer thinks the Clerk will accept it... though we had issues yesterday with the length and arrangement of the Appendix to the brief as well.

The good news is the brief is done.

The bad news is that the client will get an eye-popping bill shortly.

It will be really bad news for me if the client does not promptly fork over the large amounts demanded by said bill. I've already mentioned that there's been no time to work on anything else these last several weeks, right?

And now, very shortly, my focus will shift again. I have another appellate brief due at the end of this month, though not in the same court (thank God!). The record is at least as lengthy and horribly convoluted and I wasn't trial counsel on this one either so I have to wade in and master it... rather quickly, actually. But this case, though hard-fought, was apparently not as bitter as the case on which I've just filed.

But posting here may be sporadic for awhile. And, also, a blessed relief.