Lawyering is hard.
\nThe post Federal Judge Big Mad Over Attorney\u2019s 3:30 A.M. Filing appeared first on Above the Law.<\/p>\n
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Courts generally frown on missing deadlines. They also don\u2019t like when folks appearing before them are late. Put both together and it\u2019s like gleaming the cube of irritation for a judge. Add in a 3:30 a.m. filing and you\u2019ve got a well and truly pissed-off judge.<\/p>\n
Former Massachusetts state senator Dean Tran was convicted on charges he improperly collected unemployment benefits under a pandemic relief program. Prosecutors are recommending a two-year prison sentence. He was due to be sentenced on January 17th, but in the wee hours of the morning \u2014 3:30 a.m. \u2014 his attorney, Michael Walsh, filed a sentencing memo<\/a> challenging the advisory sentencing guidelines. What\u2019s more, he showed up at 10:06 a.m. for the 10:00 a.m. hearing. And Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV was not pleased about any of that, as reported by <\/a>Law360:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m unhappy, very unhappy that Mr. Walsh was late, I\u2019m unhappy that Mr. Tran was out in the hall when I took the bench, and what I\u2019m really unhappy about is that this morning the defendant filed a sentencing memorandum that raises a number of issues,\u201d Judge Saylor continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a deadline for doing that, which Mr. Walsh blew through,\u201d Judge Saylor said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But there was no emergency or unforeseen circumstance that justified the last minute filing \u2014 Walsh just explained that it\u2019s hard work being a lawyer.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent weeks with the sentencing manual trying to figure out which way is up,\u201d Walsh, speaking rapidly, told the judge.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of us were in bed at 3:30 this morning, asleep,\u201d Judge Saylor responded. \u201cI was certainly not sitting up waiting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The judge said the situation was \u201cunfair and inappropriate,\u201d but, fearing Tran could argue ineffective counsel on appeal if he refused to consider the memo, he pushed sentencing back to February 7th. One bit of advice for Walsh: shows up on time.<\/p>\n Lawyering is hard. The post Federal Judge Big Mad Over Attorney\u2019s 3:30 A.M. Filing appeared first on Above the Law. Courts generally frown on missing deadlines. They also don\u2019t like when folks appearing before them are late. Put both together and it\u2019s like gleaming the cube of irritation for a judge. Add in a 3:30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":101398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Benchslapped-01-x6JO44-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C2053&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n![\"Kathryn](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"