If anyone out there is thinking of going to law school because he or she hopes to be trying cases in the style of Jack McCoy three years down the line, let us show you an example of what real-life litigation is all-too-frequently like.

It comes from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, and concerns an exchange between two lawyers in a public-records case in front of the Ohio Supreme Court.

And if you're anything like us, it'll make you want to bang your forehead against your keyboard. Hard.

The case is about "whether deeds and other records at the county recorder's office -- records that were collected and are maintained with your taxes -- should be readily available at reasonable cost."

Straightforward enough, we suppose. But that's certainly not how we'd describe a colloquy between a plaintiffs' lawyer and a deponent, the acting head of information technology for a Cuyahoga County office.