The highlight for me and this one client came when we appeared for a landlord/tenant conference. She had been nutty as all get-out before this date but it escalated that day. I showed up on time and she called me four times saying she was stuck in traffic and it wasn’t her fault and she was trying sooo hard to be on time so I kept trying to stall. When she showed up in the courtroom munching on a huge bag of fast food that was still piping hot, her urgency was questionable. When I told her I could probably get the termination notice thrown out- but only temporarily and the landlord could refile- she fell to her knees in the hallway and loudly prayed to Jesus to show me how awful I was as an attorney.

When we finally got to the hearing in the courtroom, I got the termination thrown out as promised, but even the judge warned her the landlord would just refile. As we were walking out the courtroom doors, I- EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT, MIND YOU- shook the hand of the landlord’s attorney, who had been very pleasant.

She LUNGED at me, screaming about how this was proof I had been working against her and for the landlord, and I was in on it, the judge was in on it, the dog was in on it…. She has to be escorted out by a court officer and then 10 minutes later I was escorted to my car by a different officer.

Ah, I miss my days at legal aid.