Guard Your Leave w/ Your Life…Seriously…
I know I have talked about being away on holiday (see Post #3, Don’t I Get to Holiday??) but, now I want to talk about secured leave. Yes, attorneys far and wide. I am writing about that designated time that we get from our state’ bars or local/State rules of Court that permit us to totally unplug and get away from the arduous tasks of lawyering. More importantly, it is a time in which the Court is required, pursuant to the rules of Court, to NOT schedule or hold a trial/proceeding (and opposing counsel is even forbade from scheduling depositions) during properly noticed secured leave. This is really important because I have found that, when you are a trial lawyer, not every Court (or judge for that matter) will fully respect your secured leave when you assert it.
I had the unfortunate experience of being at a calendar call where I specifically asserted to the Court that I was on designated secured leave. Despite my assertions, the Court saw fit to assert that I just needed to find someone to fill in for me and that they were going to set this case, for which I was the only attorney of record, on a date during my secured leave. This is not appropriate, and the rules specifically tell the Court that it cannot do that. Here is the pertinent language from the rule:
A “secure-leave period” is one complete calendar week that is designated by an attorney during which the superior courts and the district courts may not hold a proceeding in any case in which that attorney is an attorney of record. An attorney is entitled to enjoy a secure-leave period that has been designated according to this rule.
I had clearly filed my secured leave and it was already designated well before the court saw fit to calendar the matter. Luckily, since I had well prepared and noticed the opposing side of my secured leave, I was able to get it continued to the next calendar call. But I should not have had to do this.
The rules specifically bar the Court from setting or calendaring matters for an attorney AFTER this leave has been properly designated. The matter for which I referred to was not a matter that took precedence nor was it an emergency. This was regular calendar call. I tell this little story because it is really important for us as attorneys to guard our secured leave fiercely. The Court and opposing counsel will always want to traipse all over your ability and right to take protected secured leave. There will always be something; a client gets arrested on an OFA (order for arrest), a juvenile goes off their release and gets placed in secured custody, someone wants to file for emergency custody because their spouse gave their child supermarket brand orange juice as opposed to named brand orange juice. There will always be something that beckons us back to our desks and the courtroom during those times that we have done everything in our power (and procedurally) to be specifically away from our duties as attorneys at law. We cannot function like this. We need to be assertive and not only schedule but DECLARE our secured leave protected time away. And we need to be vigilant about asserting to everyone (including the Court) that it is NOT okay and not permissible to disregard our clear demarcated vacation.
I am not playing, y’all. Don’t come at me saying that I need to work during my secured leave. You will get a response that you do not like. So, to be clear, for everyone, about what you need to do in order to fiercely protect your secured leave, these are some pointers, from my experience:
- KNOW THE RULES
- It is very important to review and review again the rules relating to designating secured leave for attorneys. In North Carolina, we do have rules promulgated that institute and govern how we attorneys may take our secured leave. The rules can be located at www.nccourts.org (follow this: home page → Courts → Supreme Court → Court Rules → General Rules of Practice…) These are the General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts. These rules relate to all attorneys in North Carolina, and they apply to all attorneys in North Carolina. The rules require attorneys to designate their leave in writing and file it with the clerk of court where they have made appearances at least 90 days in advance of their leave. In addition, the rules state to whom you must send these written secured leave notices. Make sure to send all copies of your leave to opposing counsel, the clerk and all others that the rule dictates. Doing this ensures that you have the protection of the rule and can freely assert to the Court and opposing counsel that you are on secured leave and matters cannot be scheduled during that designated time. Also, don’t be one of those asshole attorneys that always claim they are on secured leave, yet others never get a notice from them. Doing this only makes people want to ignore the fact that you are on secured leave and specifically try and schedule things for you to attend to during this time. It also severely hurts your credibility with the Court.
- NOTIFY YOUR CLIENTS OF YOUR SECURED LEAVE
- I always think it is a good idea to adequately prepare for when you will be away and not reachable, even to clients. I think it is important to let your clients know that you will be on secured leave and that during that time, they will not be able to reach you. And I do think it is important for you to have times when your clients will not be able to reach you. Don’t take calls or emails during your secured leave. If you must, you can communicate with your office about things, but I would caution against breaking that wall that you worked so hard to build by reaching out to clients during your secured leave. Your clients need to know and understand that there are limits to when they can reach you and for what purpose. I like to send an email a week prior to my leave to let my clients know that I will be away and that they will not be able to reach me until I return. This gives clients a good week to call you in advance of your leave if they need you or feel they need a pep talk before you go dark.
- DO NOT SCHEDULE ANYTHING DURING YOUR SECURED LEAVE…PERIOD.
- Some of us may be tempted to schedule some phone calls or virtual calls that we have needed to schedule during this free time away. Don’t do it! Your secured leave time is really important to keep sacred and away from work. In addition, if you take calls or do work during your secured leave, I think it can open the door to others not respecting or believing that you are truly off and not able to be contacted. If you are going to be away, be away. I think it makes you lose credibility in why you designated your leave for that period of time, and it can make others not trust that you are truly utilizing the time to be away from work, as opposed to not wanting to take certain calls or handle certain business.
- BE ASSERTIVE
- Don’t let others (even the Court) try and schedule things, even cursory matters, during your secured leave. In the example I gave above of an experience, I immediately filed a Motion to Continue and attached my previously filed secured leave notice. In addition to the above experience, when I recently took some secured leave, right before I was set to go on leave, the Court wanted me to appear at a hearing that was not pre-scheduled and had just come up due to some unforeseen circumstances. I was adamant that I was away and could not attend this hearing so I would need to have someone re-appointed by the court. The Court gently nudged me, to see if I would or could at least be available by WebEx. I almost caved, but what gave me the fortitude to say no was that I was truly not going to be in a place where I could reliably be on a virtual call. I found myself having to stick to my guns all throughout this exchange and make others do some work in order to provide what was necessary in my absence. This may sound selfish, but I don’t care. I have worked hard and continue to work hard. I, like everyone else, deserve my breaks and when I have designated my secured leave, that is my much-deserved break that doesn’t need to be interrupted by court or other work matters. And also, it’s against the rules.
- MAKE SURE YOUR EMAIL SAYS YOU ARE AWAY
- Don’t forget this step. God help us, please don’t! Most email services allow you to schedule when you will display your automatic reply message. Do this at least a week or a few days in advance so you don’ have to do it while you are on your leave. Have a simple rote message that says that you will be unavailable from this date to this date. Make sure the message says that you will not be responding to any emails during this time, so people know that when they email you during this time, not to expect a return email until after you have returned.
- MAKE A LIST OF PEOPLE CLIENT’S CAN CALL
- Just in case the bottom falls out and someone or something needs immediate attention, have a list of attorneys with whom you have consulted and asked to be available to take those emergency calls if necessary. Make sure to extoll to your clients and office staff that these calls need only be made in true emergencies. Having someone that can be called on in your absence helps reaffirm your boundary of not responding to things during your leave.
- MAKE SURE MATTERS ARE AT A STOPPING POINT
- This goes for business matters as well. Since your secured leave must be designated at least 90 days in advance, this planning can occur. Make sure that things aren’t scheduled too near to when your leave will start such that a matter you started cannot be finished by the time your leave starts. Do the best that you can that you leave the office with most things either wrapped up or clearly in a negotiated planned holding pattern. Make sure that everyone at the office is paid or scheduled to be paid and all the bills that are on your desk are paid and attended to. Nothing ruins a secured leave more than worrying about that unpaid bill or that filing that needs to go out but just hasn’t yet. Also, when matters are at a stopping point, you will be less likely to break those rules you have set up for yourself about not responding to emails or texts during your leave. This can reassure you that you have things, as much as they can be, under control and there is no need to interrupt your leave for anything but the direst of emergencies.
Adhering to the above has made guarding my secured leave a practice that I intend to continue on with. Secured leave is something to hold dear and take seriously. So go ahead and take your secured leave already! And make sure no one tries to fuck with it.
