When a judge asks a lawyer for exhibits to support an argument, it helps to return the judge’s phone call.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot said he didn’t get that call, or the documents he was seeking, after his staff phoned a lawyer for Linda Schneider.
Linda Schneider and her husband, former doctor Stephen Schneider, face more than 30 charges stemming from the prescribing of painkillers at their Haysville clinic.
“Let me make something clear to all counsel: when a member of my staff calls, the call will be returned the same day it is received,” Belot wrote in a letter dated today. “My staff will not deal with your confusing and unresponsive telephone answering systems. If the call is not returned, I will dispatch a U.S. marshal to bring to the courthouse the lawyer who did not return the call.”
Marshals typically escort people to the courthouse in handcuffs.