Don’t make fun of cat lawyer — it happens a lot

You might have seen the video of the “cat lawyer” by now, who was trapped in a kitten filter while appearing via Zoom at a court hearing.

Within a day, the video appeared on numerous YouTube accounts, received millions of views and quickly became the No. 1 trending clip on the platform.

Celebrities like Legal Eagle and Russel Brand did their own “react” videos. While the video is hilarious, it happens in court more often than you would think. For example, just last week, there was a video of a lawyer having sex during a hearing.

COVID-19 led to massive changes in the court systems. In March 2020, the legal system was forced to adjust to a new way of doing things overnight.

If you entered a court in 2019, it wouldn’t have been much different than in 1919.

As you can see in the cat lawyer video, some lawyers have struggled with the technology changes. In the video, the lawyer’s child had been using a cat filter to chat with their friends.

The lawyer doesn’t know how to turn it off.

This is one of my nightmares come true. No matter how many hearings I do, I always get nervous the day before. What if the Wi-Fi doesn’t work? What if the court cannot hear me?

There is no way to call into the court for a test run before. When the judge speaks to you for the first time is when you find out if everything is OK.

Before COVID-19, all you had to do was make sure you arrived at the courthouse with plenty of time to spare in case of traffic, or your courtroom was moved.

In 2020, I had to do a hearing from a park. On the morning of the hearing, my upstairs neighbour started doing renovations without notice.

I had to run to the park with my binder, cellphone and notepad.

You want to start a hearing calm and collected. The point is to show that you are prepared and confident when you speak to a judge. Running to a park 10 minutes before the hearing is the opposite of calm and collected.

In the cat lawyer video, you can hear how nervous and stressed the attorney is.

You can also see the “cat’s” eyes showing the attorney is looking around desperately. Despite the attorney’s stress, the first thing the lawyer asks is “can you hear me, judge?”

I had a nightmare about that video last night, but laughed about it in the morning.

Don’t make fun of the lawyer — every day in court there is someone who can’t figure out how to unmute themselves or doesn’t know how to log into the system. (This is the first time that I have heard of a lawyer appearing in court as a cat.)

“I’m here live, I’m not a cat” will likely go down as the best court transcript of all time. What an age we live in.