Our New Year's Resolutions
1) To be a better lawyer (if possible).
2) To be a better blogger. ( id.).
3) To be nicer to judges (every resolution list should have at least one unattainable item). For those robed readers who need a little love, here is Chief Justice John Roberts praising our over-worked, under-paid, highly-qualified US District Court judges (we mean most of that. Old habits are hard to break.).
4) To let all our readers know that if there is one book you should read in 2017, it is Bruce Springsteen's autobiography "Born To Run". Simply amazing.
5) More pilates...less sugar...should do the trick.
6) Two words that bring a smile to every funny/social commentator: President Trump.
7) (removed by blog administrator).
Happy New Year one and all.
See you in court, but not Tuesday- because remember the number one rule of Rumpole's rules of the practice of law ( (c) Justice Building Blog 2016-17, all rights reserved): NEVER EVER ...repeat- NEVER EVER let a judge set a trial for the first week of the new year. Never. Schedule elective surgery if necessary. But never let a case be set for the first week of January.
Judges and prosecutors have spent the holidays pondering their careers, and simple subjects that they are (just broke resolution #3) they all arrive at the same conclusion: to try more cases and seek and issue harsher sentences as a way of letting the word go forth that defendants should not be foolish enough to risk a trial in their courtroom.
Time and time again we have seen defendants slammed on simple cases all because their lawyers made the mistake of allowing their case to be set for the first week of January.
There is also a more personal issue. For those of us that like to ski and travel and enjoy the holidays, having a jury trial set January 2 wipes out the last two weeks of December which much be spent in preparation for the trial. But beyond personal reasons, do not play into the New Years Resolution trap where Judges and prosecutors - unhappy to be back at work- take out their frustrations and fulfill their resolutions on the back of your client.
You've been warned time and time again. Don't complain to us if you haven't listened.
See You In Court.
Rumpole is soooooo right. Many years ago a larger law firm hired me and dumped a client with a dui and two prior on me to be tried the first week of the year. The prosecutors were loaded for bear, the judge, who had been on the bench early was waiting for me. I walked into a crowded courtroom and standing behind at least a dozen lawyers in line s/he saw me, called me up-front and announced in front of everyone that a jury was being brought down in an hour unless I had a plea. The offer was 364 so of course I didn't have a plea. The client was a white collar professional-scared out of his/her wits.
ReplyDeleteWe go to trial and of course I lose and the client, based on the charges, get TWO consecutive 364 sentence AND a six month consecutive jail sentence to the other two. Fines through the roof. A ten year license suspension.
And of course I was promptly fired the following Monday.
Lesson learned. Listen to my sad tale people- although if you have a trial set Tuesday it's probably already too late.
But don't ever let a case be set the first week of January. Rumpole, as always is right.
So now it's all over. RenGenII and the era of super chef Juan Carlos ended last night New Years eve with a bang. 1 K a head (that's a thousand bucks people) for a NYE party that ended just a few hours ago with Mimosas made from fresh squeezed local oranges and Louis Roederer Cristal 2007 (that's $200 a bottle retail folks) and Maine lobster eggs benedict.
ReplyDeleteThe menu was off the charts. Wines I've only dreamed about but never could afford.
Wagu Beef (the original from Japan) They had an entire cow from Japan flown in. Wagu beef sells in restaurants in NYC (if you can fine it) for $80/oz with a minimum buy of a six oz filet- so I'm figuring that the cow alone cost a hundred grand. I had thin sliced carpaccio, and a beautiful melt in your mouth ribeye. You haven't lived until you've had a ribeye Wagu steak. Lobsters were flying everywhere. So were Stone Crabs and beautiful, fat, juicy, salty Oysters from a small inlet in Massachusetts. Snow piles of caviar piled in ice carved bowls underneath an ice fountain that had a small batch vodka brewed exclusively in a small town in Ukraine. They make only a thousand liters a year and RenGenII had about 300 liters flowing through four fountains. A manager said the deal was signed and paid for in June of 2016.
Desserts? A coconut ganache with Uni foam. Small souffles with vanilla beans harvested from Madagascar and small batches of chocolates from an organic farm in Tangiers. Candied cherries and oranges and kiwis lined the top of the Souffles.
Of course home made ice cream. Coffee made from Peaberry beans, Banana ice cream, Blueberry-pomegranate, you name it.
The best meal of the year. And now Chef JC flies off to his new job in Austin. No idea if RenGenII will pop-up in 2017. The owners were tight-lipped and mostly didn't mingle with us last night.
Please tell me rump's resolution is to no longer put up posts of fake restaurants. Of course if you actually google ren, you get redirected to a myspace page. Ren, of course was featured on the Food Network as the best restaurant you havent heard of, cant find, or eat at.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, id like to announce the opening of Ren AD. It is located just south of the old cutler ridge mall. Right between a tire shop and a check cashing store. Head chef Max, used to work at Krispy Kreme, the old Lums in Kendall and recently the Buffalo Wild Wings in Dolphin Mall. He beat out Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck and Chef Boyardee for position of head chef. This year we anticipate 4 Michelin stars from Tire Kingdom.
Todays special is water flown in and melted from the polar ice caps in greenland. French fries from France. Hamburger buns from a holsum bakery in Hamburg. Vienna sausages from Publix, but the Publix manager is 14% Austrian.
Hey jerky- you know not of what you speak of. The Ren (a venue) is closed. A real partner brouhahah erupted when it took off. This is RenGenII. Cannot you read the comments? No one is saying its the Ren ( a venue). RenGenII is a "pop-up" restaurant. Do you know what that means? They find vacant venues- a closed restaurant, an empty warehouse, they rent it for a weekend, move their equipment in- run hot for three days, and close up. One group of partners kept chef Juan Carlos on salary and on an average of three times a month, they ran pop-ups. Usually on calle ocho or Midtown, but once in a vacant warehouse in West Kendall.
ReplyDeleteIt was very successful and the food was amazing. Then JC got a big offer from a venture capital firm that had just bought out a chain of gastro pubs in Texas, HQ'd in Austin, and JC terminated his contract with RenGenII, which he had a right to do, effective December 31. So RenGenII threw two big blow-outs. Noche Buena at a closed restaurant on 8th street in the Gables, and that was closed to the public- just friends of the club and family. Then this last week in a warehouse on the edge of Liberty City and Midtown, they were up and running for five nights, ending with the big new years eve blow-out. I wasn't at the New years eve, because I couldn't afford it. But I get invites because I'm on their email list, and I did get in for Xmas eve and the roasted pig was amazing. So it was not a fake restaurant, but it's gone because chef JC is gone. He flew out to Austin on a private jet today.
Just call me a Fan of RenGenII
You are so right. Never try a case January 2nd....especially a DUI.
ReplyDeleteThe prohibition against JURY trials continues throughout the month.
ReplyDeleteCredit card bills are arriving, and they are pissed at spouses, their kids, their own excesses -- and now can focus their anger at your client.
A plea to a lesser may work, because after a jury trial, the Judge has those same economic demons on their shoulders, and will slam your client to make themselves feel better.
BE WARNED!
OMG Rumpole, I'm sitting here shaking. I just got three emails from three different prosecutors-
ReplyDeleteDrug possession- 3rd degree felony, one prior- plea offer 22 months prison; possn f/a by a felon- plea offer 15 years; agg assault with a bat- no priors- plea offer 67 months prison.
You are so right. All new prosecutors from the last re-set in September/October. All plea offers have been raised substantially- the drug poss last offer was 3 years probation; the agg assault was house arrest. I'm never going to do this again. I'm shaking. When the trials were set it seemed so far away, and now I've been partying the last two weeks and I'm screwed. Oy...