Several weeks ago, I wrote in these pages about how adjournments and trial delays often benefit a criminal defendant (“Hamlet, Trump & ‘The Delay Game,’” NYLJ, 7/24/23). This is not about that.

This is also not about what Jimmy Breslin’s famous “Klein, the Lawyer”—an only somewhat fictional Queens lawyer—who would tell judges: “I need time judge. An important witness, Mr. Green, hasn’t yet shown up.” Klein wasn’t actually deceiving the local judges or being the least bit mischievous with them. They knew him and exactly what he was saying (on his own behalf) without him specifically articulating it. And because they liked Klein, they typically went along with his charade: “How long will you need? … Granted.” Try that sometime in federal court! Instead, this article is about the ethics surrounding defense lawyers’ efforts to questionably—or even worse—gain a delay from a judge. Indeed, the Rules of Professional Conduct expressly provide that lawyers must act with “promptness” in representing a client and cannot use means that have “no substantial purpose other than to delay or prolong the proceeding.” How far can attorneys go to get an adjournment from a judge, even where extra time is in the client’s best interests or where the client simply wants a postponement, before they could face disciplinary action?

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