It was unusual.
@DDD Dad and I had a case in Collin County in 2013. It was one of those cases where we had a decent shot at summary judgment, but if we didn't get summary judgment we knew we were going to get absolutely buttfucked by a Collin County jury. So I called up a friend who does a lot of Collin County work and asked him about his thoughts on our judge, and specifically whether he is prone to granting summary judgments.
The feedback I got was "you need local counsel, and your local counsel needs to be Ken Paxton." Our judge had just been appointed to the bench a year earlier, and had been something of a protégé of Paxton's. I don't know the complete backstory, but it was apparent that our judge was on the bench entirely due to Ken Paxton.
Great. I don't care. I want to win. And if I need Ken Paxton to win, then I'm going to get Ken Paxton.
So the day of the summary-judgment hearing, Paxton rolls into the courtroom about 10 minutes before the hearing. I chat with him briefly--and "briefly" was all our chat needed because it became really apparent real quick that Paxton hadn't done shit. He hadn't read the briefing; he didn't know shit about the case. I suggested that I could do the argument, and he readily agreed.
So there we go in our hearing. Collin County is one of those counties where there is kind of a shelf on the front of the bench and you go up there to argue. As an aside, I think that's really kind of a North Texas thing--you don't see that in Houston or Austin or really anywhere else. Anyway, so Paxton and I go up. It's my motion, so I argue and am typically brilliant. I've got this wrapped up. Plaintiff's counsel argues, but he's fucked up a bunch of shit, and I'm feeling pretty good.
I have a short rebuttal. Now, it's been nearly ten years. But I'm pretty sure that this is a very accurate transcription of what happened next:
THE COURT: Ok. Anything else?
Mr. Ghost: No, your honor.
THE COURT. Ok. Umm, . . . Mr. Paxton, what do you think I should do here.
Mr. Paxton: I really think you ought to grant this motion, Judge.
THE COURT: Ok. Mr. Ghost--why don't you get me a proposed order.
Mr. Ghost: Thank you, your honor. We'll get that for you promptly.
And that's how I won in Collin County, Texas.