I Would Prefer Not To, Your Honor

....  In Montgomery, Alabama, when attorney Norman Hurst Jr. signed on in 2007 to represent a preschool teacher in a race and gender discrimination suit against First United Methodist Church but then missed every court-appointed deadline, skipped pretrial hearings, and ignored every request to discuss settlements,

Prior to the hearing, [Hurst] called the court’s chambers and left a message, unwittingly, perhaps, in the words of Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, that he would “prefer not” to attend the contempt hearing. The court sent a message back that he had no preference in the matter and must attend the hearing if he did not want to be held in contempt of court.

Some people cannot be persuaded. Hurst was late for the hearing and sanctioned for contempt, another Bartleby cut down before he could do more damage....