Going to oral argument at the COA and I’m psyching myself out

I’m a family law attorney and one of the things about being a family law attorney is that there’s not a lot of appeals work because most people can’t afford it and it’s not worth it. Everything except property division can just be modified faster than it can be appealed and we’re an equitable division state so even most “successful” appeals are just sending it back to the trial court to make a better record to justify the same ruling they already made.

No one really specializes in appellate work in family law, we all just handle the appeals that arise from our own cases. In the 19 years I’ve been specializing in family law, I think I’ve done 5 appeals. It’s just not an appellate heavy practice area.

This case involves a step parent adoption and it seems pretty darn straight forward to me, but then the COA granted OP’s request for oral argument and now I’m wondering WHY IN THE HELL DID THEY GRANT ORAL ARGUMENT UNLESS IT’S NOT ACTUALLY THAT STRAIGHT FORWARD???

It’s like playing chess with my 13 year old and he tells me I can win in X number of moves and then I make myself crazy trying to see what he can see but secretly I suspect he’s just saying that to fuck with me and I can’t actually win.