Are You Going To Be Much Longer?

 It's blog in a blog from an article day!  As my faithful few are aware, there are a few blogs I really love to read.  For law practice management, you really can't beat Lee Rosen's Divorce Discourse.  For business theory and management, I love Seth Godin.  I'm addicted to Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project.  Gretchen's blog yesterday was about waiting in line.  She adapted it from an article by another favorite of mine, David Maisters, titled, appropriately, "The Psychology of Waiting Lines".   Here is what Gretchen and David have to say about waiting lines:
 
1.  Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time.
2.  People want to get started.
3.  Anxiety makes a wait seem longer.
4. Uncertain waits are longer than finite waits.
5.  Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits.
6.  Unfair waits are longer than fair waits.
7.  The more valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait
8.  Solo waits are longer than group waits.

What they have to say is every bit as applicable to the family law case as it is to the line at Walmart.   When clients come into our offices, they just want their dispute to be over.  They are eager to get started  so that they can move on.  Sometimes, we have to tell them that the time isn't right to separate, that they need to wait a little while before starting their separation.   That makes them anxious.  They want to know how long they need to wait, how long the process will take.  Unfortunately, we don't have finite times for them.  It takes as long as the court says it does.  Even when they get to court, some of the cases filed after theirs go first; some judges are triple booked, while others have open dockets.  We can't control those variables, even though they make our clients anxious.  What's funny is that even the court system understands the psychology of waits.  I'm pretty sure that's why they invented discovery.  Sure, the discovery process helps us uncover important information that will help us settle or try our case.  Let's be brutally honest, though.  Much of the information we request in discovery is useless.  It might lead to important information (and it's that small possibility that makes attorneys and their insurers nervous), but more likely than not, much of it doesn't.  We could ask for far fewer documents in discovery and far fewer questions, and still gain all the information we need - in most, but not all, cases.  What discovery does really well is give our clients something to do while they wait for their case to proceed.  It gives them something to occupy their wait.  As anyone who has had to comply with discovery requests knows, discovery can occupy all of their time.  It makes the wait for court seem not quite as long.  It manages the wait.  Here in the Trenches.