Some
people
may
assume
that
judges
and
other
court
officers
have
predictable
work
schedules. Indeed,
many
government
officials
only
work
Monday
through
Friday
from
9
a.m.
to
5
p.m.
Some
people
may
think
judicial
workers
follow
similar
schedules. However,
court
officers
seemingly
work
all
kinds
of
hours,
and
legal
professionals
should
assume
that
court
officers
might
be
fulfilling
judicial
duties
outside
of
typical
hours.
Not
too
long
ago,
I
was
trying
to
clear
my
desk
on
a
Friday
after
5
p.m.
I
was
getting
ready
to
go
out
to
dinner
and
start
enjoying
my
weekend. Right
before
I
left
for
dinner,
I
saw
that
the
court
uploaded
an
order
to
one
of
my
cases. I
was
surprised
since
it
was
after
5
p.m.
on
a
Friday,
and
I
figured
that
court
officers
would
be
headed
home
for
the
weekend
at
this
point.
The
order
required
me
to
do
something
within
a
short
timeframe,
so
I
had
to
push
my
dinner
plans
back
to
initiate
the
necessary
steps
before
I
left
my
desk. I
was
kind
of
peeved
that
this
order
had
been
uploaded
after
business
hours
right
before
a
weekend,
and
I
could
see
no
reason
why
the
order
was
not
entered
earlier. However,
I
do
not
have
insight
into
judicial
operations,
and
perhaps
the
court
had
other
pressing
tasks
earlier
in
the
day
and
wanted
to
complete
this
task
before
the
weekend.
Interestingly,
a
few
hours
later
(well
after
7
p.m.)
I
got
an
email
notifying
me
that
a
court
officer
in
another
case
had
just
processed
something
related
to
that
matter.
I
doubt
that
I
received
a
notification
even
though
the
task
was
completed
earlier
in
the
day,
since
the
e-filing
system
usually
sends
out
notifications
the
moment
something
is
done
to
a
case. I
wondered
why
a
court
officer
was
working
so
late
on
a
Friday
night,
and
luckily,
this
task
did
not
require
me
to
do
anything
on
my
end.
I
have
a
friend
who
told
me
that
he
was
working
on
a
matter
years
ago,
and
he
had
a
midnight
deadline
to
email
something
to
a
judge.
The
friend
told
me
that
he
stayed
up
late
working
on
the
assignment
and
emailed
the
document
right
before
midnight. This
friend
conveyed
that
the
judge
immediately
emailed
him
back
about
the
assignment
around
midnight,
which
was
impressive
to
me. Either
this
judge
had
horrible
insomnia,
or
he
was
working
on
his
cases
well
into
the
night.
Another
time,
I
appeared
in
front
of
a
judge
on
the
eve
of
trial,
and
the
judge
was
trying
to
convince
the
lawyers
and
parties
to
settle
the
matter. The
judge
conveyed
that
he
worked
on
the
weekends
and
all
hours
of
night,
and
that
if
this
trial
moved
forward,
we
would
probably
need
to
work
on
the
weekends
to
get
everything
ready
for
a
trial
on
short
notice. I
am
not
sure
if
this
was
persuasive
to
the
parties,
but
the
case
eventually
did
settle
and
we
did
not
need
to
test
the
judge
on
his
assertion
that
we
would
all
be
working
over
the
weekend. But
I
did
not
doubt
that
the
judge
indeed
worked
outside
of
business
hours
to
complete
judicial
tasks.
All
told,
I
think
courts
should
try
not
to
complete
tasks
outside
of
business
hours,
since
this
can
impact
other
stakeholders
to
cases,
especially
counsel. However,
it
is
probably
unavoidable
that
court
officers
need
to
work
outside
of
business
hours,
due
to
the
demands
of
the
judiciary
and
the
volume
of
cases
courts
have
on
their
dockets. In
some
respects,
it
is
also
admirable
that
court
officers
sacrifice
what
might
be
their
personal
time
to
ensure
that
the
judicial
process
runs
more
efficiently.
Jordan
Rothman
is
a
partner
of The
Rothman
Law
Firm,
a
full-service
New
York
and
New
Jersey
law
firm.
He
is
also
the
founder
of Student
Debt
Diaries,
a
website
discussing
how
he
paid
off
his
student
loans.
You
can
reach
Jordan
through
email
at jordan@rothman.law.