Attorney Alexis Richards does court hearings for Tom

Attorney Tom Olsen: Hey, and again, my guest today is attorney Alexis Richards. Alexis, you've been with us now for a little bit over a year, right?

Attorney Alexis Richards: Yes, just going on like a year and a half.

Tom: We're all very proud of you. You've come a long way in you're a little over a year of practice and there's no substitution for experiences. We like to say

Alexis: Definitely not. I absolutely learn something new every single day.

Tom: As we sit around the table, sometimes we joke laughingly about how I threw you to the wolves when you became a young lawyer.

Alexis: You did.

Tom: I did. I made you do it from the get go. Why? Because I didn't want to do it.

Alexis: Admittingly, it did make me shed a few tears once, maybe twice.

Tom: When you first became a lawyer, the probate judge, we happen to have basically every motion you made, she wanted to do a hearing on it.

Alexis: I will never forget when I sat in with you on a hearing for one of those particular motions, you're talking about and I'll never forget you saying, "Judge, I just want to let you know, she's going to be doing all my hearings from now on," and pointed at me. I was like, what?

Tom: Get used to it. I, I've been a lawyer for over 40 years and I love what I do and every morning I wake up and think about what my day is going to be like and the first thing that goes through my head is boy, this is going to be a great day. Except for the days that I have to do a hearing. Part of the old days, it used to be doing a hearing here in Orange County. It means you got to get in the car, you got to drive to downtown.

You got to find a parking space, you got to go through the security line, you got to go up to the judge's chambers, you got to sit in line with all the other lawyers while the judge is running late as usual. It was just a big time commitment and I didn't like doing it. One of the nice things that came out of COVID was judges started doing hearings by phone and Zoom meeting and that certainly avoided the situation where you got to drive downtown.

I got to appreciate that, but now it means that you're on a Zoom meeting with the judge and you're looking at all the lawyers who are lined up to do their hearings with that judge that morning and you really don't know what order the judge is going in. It's not who signed on first. I'm not quite sure how they picked their order, but it still requires that you got to sit there for a long time waiting for your time to come up.

Alexis: Yes, that's true. It's nice that we have that ability now with the technology to be able to do them virtual. It makes me a little less nervous.

Tom: The nice thing, the judge will say, "Look, lawyers, go about your business, do your work on your PC, just keep an ear out for when we happen to call your name."

Alexis: Exactly.

Tom: I think the last time I did that hearing, I turned the volume down or something, camera was still going and apparently the judge and the clerk are like waving, "Mr. Olsen, we need your attention." I don't hear anything. I'm just working away, I don't know they're looking for me.

Alexis: Being productive.

Tom: Eventually, they hung up on me. My bad. We had to reschedule that. Even so, when you're doing these hearings with the probate judge, what's the average length of time you're in actually talking to the judge and getting business done?

Alexis: Five, seven minutes. That's really all they allocate for each person, because they have to keep things moving. Ten minutes would be a lot. You're looking at five to seven minutes.

Tom: By the way, these are ex parte hearings, they are uncontested. That's why you can get them done in five minutes.

Alexis: Exactly.

Tom: Still, if you've got 10 lawyers lined up times 50, that means I've seen you wait over an hour waiting for your turn.

Alexis: Exactly.

Tom: The good news is you're not sitting in the courthouse in downtown Orlando. You are sitting at your desk trying to get some work done.

Alexis: Exactly. I am very happy that they've switched to that system because it allows me to work on other things and also, stay productive or it's efficient for time.

Tom: The other thing is that in the old days, when I did used to go down to the courthouse and do these hearings, they would bring the lawyers into the hearing room one at a time. You were not hearing what the lawyer in front of you happened to be doing. When you're doing these virtual hearings, you actually get to hear what the conversation is between a judge and the other lawyers.

Alexis: I think they're switching it now where it's more so they're bringing you into like a personal meeting room, but back a little over a year ago, that's how it was.

Tom: I just remember doing it one time and listening to a lawyer in front of me and then I hear the judge chewing out that lawyer for what they're doing, how they're doing it wrong. I go, "Gosh, dang, I'm glad I learned that. It's not going to happen to me someday." That was a little bit of a good learning process for me.

Alexis: I think now they're going more into like the individual meeting rooms. Over a year ago, that was part of the process.

Tom: Okay. Hey buddy, thanks so much for all your great calls and questions. We do so much appreciate it. My name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is Olsen on Law. You're listening to news radio, WFLA.

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