Home Cookin’
When I was a child, I had a babysitter named Katherine. This was in the eighties in New York City at the height of the crack epidemic. I am the product of two full-time working parents that desperately needed quality childcare. Enter Katherine. Katherine lived in Fort Greene Brooklyn but was originally from the depths of Georgia and could cook like nobody’s business. This is precisely the reason why this native New Yorker with Jamaican born parents grew up knowing exactly about grits, fried chicken and collard greens. That is what I knew and understood about home cookin’ (American style, as there is a Jamaican home cookin’ as well).
This week, I will not be talking about Katherine’s home cookin’ (which was good as all get out). No, my friends. The type of home cookin’ I will be talking about this week is the proverbial shit that out-of-town lawyers are put through when they deign to venture outside of their home counties.
Is this really a thing? Or is this something that is just whispered around courthouses as existing? Well, of course I turned to the internet to investigate. And with some digging, I found an actual definition from an online dictionary:
Home Cooking: A slang expression indicating the fear held by out-of-state or out-of-town defendants in a lawsuit that they will not receive a fair trial because of jury prejudice or because judges will not accord out-of-town lawyers the same credibility and leniency granted to local lawyers. This is the reason for most forum shopping clauses in contracts between local persons and large, usually nationwide companies. The forum shopping clause requires lawsuits to be brought in the other party’s jurisdiction, thus presumably giving them the advantage of home cooking. (https://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/home+cooking , last accessed June 15, 2023).
Wow. This is really something that has a concerted definition.
I touched briefly on the idea of home cookin’ in my post about “Legal Deserts” (May 22, 2023) when I wrote about the possible reasons why out of county lawyers may not volunteer to fill the need for representation in those far-flung counties. Home cookin’ is a real thing for us private lawyers and it can keep really good attorneys from accepting those cases and clients that are in real need of objective legal representation. When can this come into play? Well, sometimes it is absolutely necessary for clients to venture outside their geographical boundaries for legal representation due to genuine conflicts of interest with those attorneys that are within their county. Think of the litigant whose “daddy” knew everyone in town and actually did something for (or against) everyone in town. Well, perhaps one may feel that those lawyers in their town/county may have a conflict, or the attorneys themselves may conflict themselves out of representing that person. That client has no other choice but to seek help for their legal needs outside their proverbial stomping grounds. Any attorney who is brave enough to step into such a situation has to be aware of the strong likelihood of them experiencing home cookin’.
Home cookin’ is the often times negative treatment that out of county attorneys experience when they voyage to appear in court in those counties with which they are unfamiliar. It is very much likened to this idea of tribalism that many a political pundit has echoed in the last decade of American politics. The idea that the outsider is not to be trusted and that the insiders must show the outsider exactly how unwelcome they are in their midst. It’s also a form of hazing. Let’s give the new girl a lesson on how we do things here. It is true that each locale has its quirks and little nuanced rules that apply if you practice there. I get it. The diversity of experience, demographic and social realities make practicing law very different in some places as opposed to others. Those urban locales don’t have too much in the way of rules around hunting and forestry as opposed to those rural counties where people live and die by those local norms. But it shouldn’t be that it is presumed that the out of county lawyer doesn’t already know that and comes graciously into a county willing to learn so that they can do a good job for their client. I find that there is this horrible presumption that out of county lawyers do absolutely no preparation when voyaging into uncharted territory. So much so that the local lawyers just presume you are not going to know the rules and try to run ramshot over you just for the hell of it. Sometimes that does occur, and you bear witness to an out-of-town attorney indignantly trying to tell the Court how things are supposed to be, not realizing that they are the guest within these quarters. But for the most part, those of us who voyage outside our borders to practice are humble and so very much want to advance our client’s position. So, we know and understand when we do go to these alien counties that we have much to learn about how things are done there, and our ears do far more of the work than our mouths.
Is there anything we can do about this? Or do we always have to face the prospect of home cookin’ when we leave our respective districts? Is this even a problem? Some may say that this is just the way it goes. Like a rite of passage of sorts for those newbies in from out of town. But why in the hell does it have to be so unpleasant? And also, why must the Court play such a large part in home cookin’? I wrote about an instance I experienced in my post about secured leave (“Guard Your Leave With Your Life…Seriously” April 9, 2022) I was at a calendar call when a Judge saw fit to ignore my secured leave and purposely set a court date for when I was on leave. This was clearly a violation of the rules, but also it was a demonstration of home cookin’. The Court was unfamiliar with me as an attorney and thought it could just schedule matters outside the rules because I wasn’t from there. What helped in that situation was that I knew the rules and had a good relationship with opposing counsel. However, is there really anyway to get around being “home cooked” if you take a case outside your usual geographical practice area?
What is the brave ambitious lawyer to do if they want to take on the challenges of home cookin’? Well, you all know I am a fan of lists:
Properly Introduce Yourself
I have been on many a calendar call where an out-of-town lawyer only answers up for a client and nothing of what their name is or where they are from. This can be disjointing to a Court for all the understandable reasons. When someone you don’t know wants to talk to you, do they just holler your name and start barking out what they want to say? No. Of course not. Almost all culture’s social norms mandate an introduction of some kind. Hello! My name is….. So why is there an exception in Court? There isn’t. Start by taking the time to say your name and where you are from in advance of the fact that you represent the client. From that one gesture you should be able to gauge the temperature of the room and the friendliness or hostility of the Court to outsiders.
Make a Social Call
Yes, we all have really busy practices and cannot always spare the time to go sit in a courtroom without having business to attend to. But if you are to really take on a case in a county or locale with which you are unfamiliar, you are going to have to GET familiar with the way they do things there. There is no better way to do that than making a date, in advance of when you must appear, to observe court. Even if you do it the morning you are to appear and you are set to appear in the afternoon. You will gain so much knowledge in that one sitting session that will benefit you greatly. Also, the Court and others will see you sitting there and get curious. Your face, hopefully, won’t seem so alien by the time your case is called if you have made a cameo appearance before that.
Don’t Be Shy
When you do get to Court, try and introduce yourself to the other attorneys in the “box”. Be kind and cautiously inquisitive and find a way to ask someone their name and tell them yours. I cannot tell you how many fast friends I made that way AND those same attorneys almost always were willing to come to my rescue and give me a little tid-bit of knowledge to help me acclimate to the Court’s whims.
File a Notice of Appearance
So often, we skip this step because we attend a calendar call or we file a motion on a client’s behalf. It is really important to file your appearance in those courtrooms for which you are unfamiliar. This gives not only the Court but the clerk a heads up to your name, your bona fides, and your contact information. It’s also a good way of making a good first impression. Trust gets built when we address one another properly for the first time and nothing says that more than filing a separate written notice of appearance.
Open Your Ears, Not Your Mouth…To Start at Least…
Being in a new space practicing requires huge amounts of observation and listening skills. You have to listen and be attentive to how the attorneys native to that Court talk, walk, sound, and act. How do they respond to the Court? Is there a difference in how some respond versus others? Does this locale follow the notice rules or are those just a mere suggestion? You have got to be on your game with the observation skills when you deign to voyage outside your geographical practice area. Doing this will help you learn quickly and hopefully keep you from putting your foot in your mouth or stepping in…well you know.
Find the Local Rules and READ THEM
Not all counties and locales have posted local rules. But, some often do. So, it really pays to find out if a county or district have local rules and read them. If they are very lengthy, print them out and carry them with you when you go to that county. You will learn if those local rules are tantamount to that County Court’s bible or if they are just a mere suggestion. Regardless, it is another way for you to pay homage to your visiting county and show it.
Home cookin’ is unfortunately a reality to the brave and ambitious attorney who isn’t afraid to venture outside of their habitual geographic practice area. But, I don’t think it should dissuade those of us that want to do that. The law is a living and breathing animal that is most embodied in those that practice it. Therefore, in order to truly experience the practice of law, I think it is important to not be afraid in being exposed to alternative ways in which to do it.
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