Opinion ID: 1314380
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hardship to Counsel

Text: While I share much of the court's concern regarding the difficulties encountered and the dangers presented when the court and the lawyers must act so quickly, I believe the majority makes too much of the difficulty defendants' lawyers may have had in addressing the issues in this case on short notice. According to the majority, defendants were prejudiced because on short notice their lawyers were forced to marshal their witnesses, facts and legal arguments; analyze the challenge, research and brief the issues; and prepare for a trial on the merits to defend against undisclosed evidentiary materials. [5] I am not persuaded. There are many lawyers who have done as much in preparing to meet requests for stays, temporary restraining orders, and preliminary injunctions, as well as petitions for writs of mandamus, prohibition, and all other matters now encompassed under the rubric of special actions. See Rule 1, Ariz.R.P.Spec.Act, 17B A.R.S. Such inconvenience, unfortunately, is the emotional and physical cost of time-dependent equitable relief. To date, so far as I know, all of our lawyers have survived such hardships. The experienced, able defense lawyers in this case have no doubt suffered this type of pressure many times before and will do so again. For trial lawyers, such hardships are a way of life, not legal prejudice. Inconvenience to counsel is not grounds for denying equitable relief in so important a case. Thus, the court is overly concerned about defense counsel's difficulties in preparing cross-examination. [6] The court impressively describes the defense attorneys' resource[ful] struggl[e] to piece together an adequate cross-examination of the expert. [7] As all trial lawyers know, resourceful struggle is not extraordinary in cross-examination. Every day, lawyers appearing on even shorter notice at hearings on stays, temporary restraining orders, and the like effectively cross-examine witnesses on issues far more demanding than whether the words of the proposed amendment covered one issue or two. Moreover, even if, as the majority concludes, defendants were prejudiced by their struggle during cross-examination, it was of no consequence because the trial judge ultimately disregarded plaintiffs' expert evidence. Defendants would not have been helped by having a full five weeks to prepare for cross-examination of an expert witness whose testimony the trial judge ultimately refused to consider. The issues in this case were not complex. No expert evidence was required. Realistically, the most important preparation required in this case was reading the six Arizona cases on the subject  the five listed above and one from the court of appeals. They are all cited in the Arizona Revised Statutes annotation under article 21, § 1 of the Arizona Constitution. One supposes that is just how defense counsel found them. They were all decided as matters of law and may be read, digested, and understood in a few hours. I have every confidence that defense counsel were able to read the cases, marshal their legal arguments, and present them to the judge within the time frame available. I have seen less experienced counsel do as much in less time. Admittedly, working so hard with so little notice is a hardship on the lawyers. Without much more, it is not the same as legal prejudice.