Priya's Wednesday, Two Ways

Priya, a district court judge with a crowded docket.

Priya is a district court judge. On Wednesday morning she has a motion hearing at 9:30, a jury trial starting after lunch, and a sentencing at 4:00. Her bench memo is half finished, and two motions arrived late yesterday.

She opens Claude and uses the legal research prompt to sort the competing standards on a suppression issue. She asks for a short list of cases and the points where courts disagree. Then she uses the motion review prompt to summarize the two late motions and pull out the facts each side agrees on.

Before lunch, Priya uses the jury instructions prompt to draft a plain-language version of a causation instruction for the trial. She asks for two versions, one shorter and one with an example, then edits both to fit her jurisdiction. At 3:30, she uses the sentencing prompt to organize the factors in the sentencing memo and draft a short statement she can review.

With the time she wins back, Priya walks to the courtroom early, speaks with the clerk about seating, and reads the victim impact letter without rushing. She leaves at 5:15 instead of 7:00 and stops at the market on the way home.