Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Federal Litigation: Where Did It Go Off Track? — The Poetic Equivalent

A distinguished trial lawyer from Chicago, Bob Cummins, penned what I consider a poetic sibling to my article, Federal Litigation: Where Did It Go Off Track? (published in the Summer 2008 issue of Litigation and posted on the Recent Articles page at http://www.josephny_live.com/articles/viewarticle.php?53). Bob’s classic sonnet follows:

•••

How do you frustrate me? Let me count the ways:

/

You frustrate me by the depth, the

breadth and the height of unnecessary,

time consuming and costly knee jerk

motion practice and mindless discovery.

/

My mind and heart and soul reach

out for a trial date — a goal that is to

most not to be achieved

/

We immerse our courts in briefs and

blather never to free them to do the

work for which they were appointed.

/

Neither judge nor jury will hear our

cause for, after pouring vast amounts

into pretrial jousting, we look to mediate

and arbitrate lest real justice might be done.

•••

© 2008 Robert P. Cummins, Esq.

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