(A “pas de deux” is basically a dance duet.)
Sometimes, staring into the eyes of one’s dance partner, one might barely hear the music trail off or notice the lights blinking as the bar signals its last call.
In a wholly different context, civil litigation, the parties may become so entwined in their intense duet that they forget, from time to time, that the Court may wish to cut in.
Last week, recently minted U.S. Mag. Judge Steven E. Rau (D. Minn.) had to remind a couple of litigants of the Court’s interest in cutting in. The two, between themselves, had “stipulated and agreed” to extend the dance but the Court reminded them that it is the establishment that sets the closing time, not the dancers (and the owners have rules as to when they’ll let the midnight oil burn on).
Fittingly, Judge Rau has asked the plaintiff and defendants to come into the Court for a meeting on February 14 for civil litigation’s analog to couples counseling.