first court appearance

Well, I made my first court appearance today. I went to Muskegon to cover a debtor's exam for Matt Seyffert. When the appointed time arrived and the debtor failed to show for the grand inquisition I had planned for him, I began to get a little worried that I might actually have to do some lawyering. When he was officially 20 minutes late, the Clerk suggested that I go talk to the Judge b/c in her experience if the debtors are that late, they ain't showin'. Seyffert had suggested I give the guy 40-45 minutes and that was fine by me. So I waited, but of course, now I know that my first appearance is almost a certainty, so I began feverishly scribbling down some notes and an argument for why he should bypass the show cause order and issue a bench warrant for this guy. Well, they weren't so much notes as it was a script. Anyway, when the time came, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Matthew Van Dyk for the Plaintiff . . . .

Judge: Let me review the file a minute. You had a debtor's exam scheduled for this morning @ 11:00?

Me: Yes, sir.

Judge: And it is now 10 to Noon and he has failed to show?

Me: Yes, Your Honor.

Judge: Would you like me to issue a bench warrant?

Me: Yes, Your Honor.

Judge: Alright.

Me: Thank you, Your Honor.

That's not a verbatim transcript, but it's reflective of the way the conversation went. You'll notice the extent of my argument. Pretty good, eh?