I had to have an informal pre motion conference in Federal court in Bridgeport, about 1 hour from my office. It was blizzard conditions and the radio was announcing closings, including Federal Courts. All except this Judge and when I walked in 10 minutes late trying to explain about the weather conditions and traffic all he said was didn't I listen to the weather report the night before and make the appropriate preparations. He said sanctions would follow the next time either counsel was late, for any reason, and this was an informal chambers conference.
Nothing like a judge who thinks he's Almighty God, eh?
I was just thankful that it was a simple ex-parte motion and that there wasn't any drop dead statute that expired on that day or I would have had to explain my tardiness to my malpractice carrier.
I always make sure I arrive at such events at least 1/2 hour early.
I did get stuck in traffic on my way to Oral Arguments on an appeal once and I arrived about 6 minutes late. Normally (since there are usually several cases on calender each day -- and the criminal cases go first) I figured that it would not be a big deal, but it just so happened that my case was the first one called.
< When I arrived at the courthouse I couldn't find the elevator right away so I ended up running up three flights of stairs and the moment I walked into the back of the courthouse they called my case. I was completely out of breath and my heartrate was somewhere in the low hundreds.
Since I was the moving party I had to go first. I was simply too out of breath to make my prepared speech and after about 30 seconds of pretending to be cool and trying my hardest to sound lawyerly, one of the Justices interrupted me and started asking questions. That gave me just enough time to compose myself. Interestingly almost right away the justice asked me a question about a position that I was arguing against. I said, "well, I think that is something you would need to ask the respondent." At that point the justice said, "Perhaps we should," and they immediately allowed me to step down and they called him. After that, they gave my opponent a thorough dressing down and pelted him with questions he was obviously not prepared to answer. Then when they were done with him, they asked me if I had anything else to add. My response was, "No your honor, nothing." I dodged a bullet on that one.
Now when I have an oral argument on an appeal, I make sure I arrive at least an hour and half early.