The definition of an “Appearance” for court purposes – a piece of paper that gets filed that says I lawyer am representing a client as sayeth on the Appearance I’ve filed. And you’re supposed to file this BEFORE you appear in court to represent a client, with a rare exception or two. But I always see this abused in two ways and way too often judges let it slide.
First, like I witnessed today, a lawyer shows up a couple hours after the case had been resolved, had not brought any kind of motion (just asks the clerk to have the case re-called), had NOT filed his Appearance and then steps up as if he’s the attorney of record. If I’m a judge I simply do not let that person address the court until I see a filed Appearance. It’s rife with potential trouble notably in terms of inadvertantly subjecting a person to a court’s jurisdiction where it may not otherwise lay. And as a laywer it’s just tacky…take 5 minutes, prepare an appearance, drop it in the no fee box, then, go to court.
Second, it perhaps bothers me more when a non-party, non-attorney is allowed to step up and address a court on behalf of a litigant who chose not to appear. And this one has hurt clients of mine more than once where I’m ready to take a default say Order of Possession or something in the landlord/tenant area and I can’t get this done because a judge lets a non-party “represent” a party in court (why have lawyers if non-lawyers can just step up for another party?).
June 23, 2009
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