Most laymen, along with most non-litigating lawyers, know the court system through the minimizing prism of their own experience. Maybe they once fought a parking ticket. Maybe their kid was arrested for something nefarious and had to appear in criminal court. Maybe a business dispute couldn’t get resolved and they filed a lawsuit, just to get the ball rolling but with no real intention of wanting to undertake costly litigation, figuring the case will settle on mutually acceptable terms. These laymen frequently only know that case, unaware that different judges may come at such cases through different eyes.
Litigators know better. They will know that a given judge, for example, may choose to let the parties adjourn a case seemingly forever on mutual consent (in the absence of a “command” from a chief judge bent on moving court dockets), while another judge may swiftly move ahead any case that has been docketed. Different protocols, different ways of managing their dockets, for different judges.
