The origins of my initials and an updated motion to permit skype testimony at trial
The origins of my initials and an updated motion to permit skype testimony at trial

Pick up mom from Shoreline.  It is 58 degrees out and she is in a faux fur black maxi coat with brass buttons.  She bought it for $25.  Half off at the consignment store.  Brand new from Sears.

Take her to late lunch at Din Tai Fung University Village.  Hour and a half wait.  Meet up with my brother Greg and his wife Laurie.  We say forget it.  Go to Boom Noodle.  Eat lunch.  Not as good as Din Tai Fung but quicker.  Greg and Laurie take Nala for doggie sitting play date.  I drive with mom to the movie theater at The Landing in Renton.  My sister Jenny pulls up.  Out jump her boys Ben and EJ.  We eat popcorn and watch Paddington Bear.  Quite delightful.

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Karen Koehlerfamily, motion, women
Mr. T - a deposition tale
Mr. T - a deposition tale

5:45 am.  Phone beeps.  Count backward down to the minute have to get up to get out on time.  5:56 am get up.

Race through morning ritual.  Clothes put out the night before.  Black crop jeans.  Black t-shirt.  Deconstructed BCBG black and gray striped jacket.  Black doc martens.  2 black bags.  Black raincoat.  Slick back hair that used to be black and now in places looks like tinsel.  Grab 2 luna bars, fat sumo orange and honey crisp apple for later.

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Karen Koehlerdeposition, lawyer schedule
Time Machine: did my college frosh prediction come true
Time Machine: did my college frosh prediction come true

Saturday morning.  Am going through and dumping old files.  The box catches my eye:  "Business Junk - Old School Records."  All neatly organized.  Typical.

Find a two page writing sample entitled:  "Where will I be in ten years. Karen Kathryn Koehler.  English 181  Milbauer, May 9, 1979."

This would have been typed on an IBM Selectric.  The three pages of  onion skin paper are a bit wrinkled.

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Karen Koehlerlooking back
Bump Bounce and Roll: Trying to start a trial.
Bump Bounce and Roll: Trying to start a trial.

On The Good Wife or Drop Dead Diva, the attorneys get the cases in the morning.  Try them in the afternoon.

In the real world the case is filed and then has to wait a year and a half for a trial date.

If it survives for that long, there is a fifty-fifty chance  the defense will ask the judge for (and get) a continuance.  Delay is a friend of the defense: Deny. Defend.  Delay.

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Karen Koehlerbest paralegal, legal scheduling
Playing the "pot" card against an innocent driver
Playing the "pot" card against an innocent driver

Driving while high is now being used as a sword by the insurance companies of bad drivers who cause crashes.

Let's say you live in a state where pot is legal.  You get high on a Sunday evening with a group of friends in your own home.  On Thursday, you are driving down a road and someone runs a red light.  You had a green light.  The bad driver tells the officer that you look high.  The officer doesn't see anything unusual but asks you to take a blood test.  Carboxy-THC shows up.  You are ticketed for driving under the influence.  Until a prosecutor looks at the blood work and realizes there's no case.  At which point the charges are dropped

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Karen Koehlermotion, car accident, insurance, obnoxious defense
A convention speech and run around Gray's Lake, Des Moines Iowa
A convention speech and run around Gray's Lake, Des Moines Iowa

Get up before alarm rings at 6.  This means it is really 4.  Flop back on bed.  Alarm rings at 6:15. 

Search around for hotel phone on night table.  Don’t find it.  Sigh.  It is on the other side of the bed.  Scramble across.  Hit “O”.  Ask for front desk.  It is front desk.  Can I get a late check out.  Yes. 

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Karen Koehlerlawyer convention, public speaking, traveling lawyer, lawyer schedule
Lift off for Taos in Sonoma
Lift off for Taos in Sonoma

Steve Gursten:  I’d like you to consider joining the TAOS group.
K3:  What kind of a group is it.
SG:  Plaintiff lawyers who have become friends and share advice.
K3:  Steve thanks for asking.  Honestly, I belong to enough groups.
SG:  This is unlike any group you belong to.  We are small but geographically diverse.  This is a real personal group where we are friends.

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Karen Koehlertraveling lawyer
Here Comes The Dean.
Here Comes The Dean.

She is a stranger who sends me a handwritten letter after having read something about me.  I email her back and invite her to lunch.  She emails back and accepts.  Two months later...

"Hi!"  She says with her warm smile, walking into my room.  "I love this office.  You have great art."

I take her over to chat with Paul Whelan.  Tour her through the maze that is our office.  Down to the old racket ball court now turned into a courtroom.  Out into the cool sunshine.  Down and across the street to the Boat Street Café.  Where we spend a delightful hour over our tasty baguette sandwiches.

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Karen Koehlergreat people, women