Lawyer submits 75 case files full of mistakes in 1 day to get back at bosses: 'No matter what they did, their system didn't work'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 9, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

When the boss orders a high volume of output and doesn't care about the quality of the work, that's exactly what they'll get! That doesn't apply to every job field (usually). There are some places that just can't rush any faster than they're already going without creating way more work for themselves in the future. Time management is a real skill, but some managers have dollar signs in their eyes, and they truly do not care about anything else. 

This lawyer worked for a very high-volume firm — they received thousands of cases per month. But what's the point of retaining a lawyer for your case if they spend like 30 seconds looking at your file? This person really tried to give each case the correct amount of time needed to draft and file a proper complaint. Instead, the bosses had a better idea: why not let a low-paid paralegal put every case into a template, and rinse and repeat without double-checking what they were sending out? What could go wrong? 

While maliciously complying, this lawyer demonstrated exactly why this was a terrible idea. It might've worked for a few cases, but in the long run, all it would do is damage the company's reputation! 

Next up, read about what happened when a woman let her 3-year-old destroy a $2,000 gaming computer setup because the room wasn't baby-proofed: "If she does not pay up, I'll take her to court." 

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    Lawyer in gray jacket and black shirt smiles with hand on hip, in background are stacks of papers
    via Wesley Tingey on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    I worked at a law firm that handled an extremely high volume of cases, I'm talking thousands per month, and due to the specific field they were in, the work called for a ton
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    of motion practice. We had to respond to motions on nearly every case, after which the cases would settle, and we would be paid relatively small amounts that added
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    up. To answer all the motions we would use a boilerplate template, input a few specifics via prompts, and send it off - this would take about 15-20 minutes. It was a
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    profitable scheme, and to be fair, it worked for that specific field of law. This is highly irregular and would be nearly impossible to effectively mount a counter argument
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    in any other field of law, which typically requires research and fact specific rebuttal to very specific challenges to your case.
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    Fast forward and now the firm is taking on cases in a new field of law, nearly all between 200-300k per case, or about 100x what a case in their original field would
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    take. We needed to draft and file Complaints on these cases. To achieve this, the partners insisted that our senior attorney would create a template, our
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    "paralegal staff” making $10/hr would speak with the client and create an intake cover sheet for each case, and I would be the lucky middle- man who got to input the cover
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    sheet data into the template and generate a complaint, for every single case in this new field that the firm was handling. In essence, they thought we could
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    handle this new, complex, different field of law with much higher stakes in much the same way they were handling our "normal" cases.
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    The intake staff had no clue what they were doing, and the boilerplate template was wildly insufficient to allege the particular facts, which varied so considerably
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    between cases (also why intake had problems). The Partners thought it should take me about 15-20 minutes to generate a complaint with their method, but the
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    reality was I actually had to review every file from scratch, figure out what was going on, input the data myself, make massive edits to the Complaint, etc, it would take me at
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    least 1.5 hours to do a good job. And honestly, that's what I did, a good job. As you can imagine, something of a backlog ensued and the partners wanted
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    to know what the issue was. I explained that due to the nature of the cases, they were requiring specific edits. I offered several recommendations
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    for how we could improve our efficiency, but they didn't want to hear it. I explained that these cases were worth significantly more, and even spending 4-5x
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    longer on them than on our other cases was still a huge win for them. They wanted paper out. "Quantity over Quality" I was told, leave the decisions to them, do what I
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    am instructed to do and play my part on the assembly line. Note that these partners did actually no legal work whatsoever on any cases - they once did long ago, but
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    now just watch cameras all day and b if you're 5 minutes late. In a fit of frustration and rage I maliciously complied. I actually
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    stayed late few nights and banged out maybe 75 or so Complaints that had backlogged. I sent them all to the Sr attorney for final review, with no edits whatsoever, wrong
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    data from our intake team, nonsensical legal arguments, fact patterns that were completely untrue, just like I was told.
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    About 3 workdays later I got called in for a meeting about what the f was going on in these complaints, and that the sr attorney was about 1/3 of the way through what I had
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    sent him and not one of the complaints was suitable to be filed. I told them I was just doing my job on the assembly line and that the issue must be coming from
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    somewhere else, but definitely not from me, because I did exactly as instructed and mindlessly input the data and sent it along. They told me this was unacceptable and if
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    there was an issue I should have brought it to their attention, to which I replied that I tried and was not listened to. They refused to accept defeat and attempted to
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    change data collection, change the templates, to no avail. It got hostile. No matter what they did, their system just didn't work, and I
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    continued to comply with their insistence I do my job and my job only. It was unbelievable how stubborn these people were.
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    Quit that job and moved on. I've been tracking some of the cases online, and they're getting dismissed on motion. Quantity not quality, eh? Not how I practice law.
    via u/TheRealJohnGalt22
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    Lawyer in gray jacket, black shirt, and black hair smiles with hand on hip
    via Nussbaum Law on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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