When I served as a staff attorney in Travis County district court, the question that seemed to come up most often in pretrial hearings was: “Have you discussed this issue with your opposing counsel?” Often, the response was negative lawyers admitted they had never called or spoke to opposing counsel about the issues they needed to resolve which did not bode well for an attorney trying to make a good impression on the judge. Here are a few practice pointers:
Don’t waste the judge’s time. If a lawyer communicates with opposing counsel prior to the hearing, she could have discovered the matter was not opposed at all. The movant definitely should contact opposing counsel prior to the hearing to determine whether it could be resolved without court involvement. However, opposing counsel is equally at fault when an unopposed matter is set for hearing and counsel fails to notify the movant of this fact prior to the hearing. Showing up in court to face the judge and admit that, in fact, neither counsel had contacted the other is a quick way to waste the judge’s time.
