The phone call was made to avoid the need to make a phone call. (I Get Paid For Doing This, 5)

Last week, there was supposed to be a "status conference" in one of my cases. A "status conference" is where the Court checks in with all the parties to see how the case is progressing, so that cases don't just linger out in the ether forever.

This particular case had, in fact, lingered out in the ether for a very, very long time, and most recently the parties had all gotten together to try to settle it, and we had, in fact, settled it, just the Friday before the "status conference."

Having settled the case, there really was no "status" that needed to be conferred about, especially when the conference required a whole conference call with a bunch of lawyers and a judge, so one of the lawyers wrote the Court about the settlement and suggested that we no longer needed the "status conference." To save time, this lawyer suggested, and avoid the Court having to call anyone, we should just not have the status conference.

Then, on Wednesday, just as I was getting in to the office, I was told that the Court was calling for me -- about 15 minutes earlier than the conference had been scheduled. So I rushed back to my office and took the call, having not even set down my briefcase or turned on my office lights.

It was the judge's clerk.

"Mr. Pagel?" she asked.

"Yes," I said, and she said "I was just calling to let you know that the status conference for this morning was, after all, cancelled."