Communications between lawyer and client and lawyer and lawyer are the lifeblood of the practice of law and anything that obstructs timely communications obstructs the practice of law. Case in point: message machines. Empirical surveys show that as soon as a message machine comes on a significant percentage of callers immediately hang up. Why? Because they can’t stand to wait through the inane messages before the beep sounds.

Let us examine more carefully the usual inanities: