So the lawyer’s assistant called yesterday, apologetic. They can’t get a court date until Jan. 12. This is for many reasons: a week off for the Holidays, a week in which court is designated only for bond and arraignment hearings, a week in which my lawyer will be out of town. The fact that they waited until Wednesday to file, and the court clerk says they won’t serve it until next week, and that means it can’t go to court within 15 days, which means it would get thrown out and we’d have to start again…..

So she’s planning to file the writ Dec. 29 and we get Jan. 12 as a court date.

It rankles. I pressed upon the lawyer, back when he first called me to discuss representation, how important it was to move this guy out before winter set in hard and fast. Partly because of the danger of pipes breaking and partly because my house is now up for sale, and I need to move someplace. Not to mention move my stuff into someplace.

So it’s annoying, this “can’t be helped” wait that could have been helped had they moved just three days faster. But it reiterates something that everyone who has been in this situation says: be your own advocate. Do not believe your lawyer cares what happens. Only believe that once you get to court, your lawyer will know what to do and do their best at it. Between now and then, be your own best friend and leave no stone unturned.

Talking with my lawyer reminds me of an Aesop proverb: a hound chases a rabbit who gets away, and up in a nearby tree, a crow makes fun of the hound. “You’re so fast and you couldn’t catch a critter so much smaller and slower?” The hound looks up at the crow and says, “You are forgetting to factor in motivation. I was running for my supper. The rabbit was running for its life.”

This is what it feels like to have a lawyer looking after your needs. Every time you have a conversation with them, they need to be reminded of pertinent specifics to the case. And they talk around the parts they know you don’t want to hear. Pay attention when your lawyer leaves holes in a conversation. Those are the ones where you wind up with court dates six weeks after you could have had one.

And so it goes.