In 2006, a federal judge in Florida had finally had enough. Two sets of attorneys, arguing about where a deposition should take place, had turned a minor logistical question into a string of motions and court filings that consumed more judicial attention than the underlying dispute probably warranted. Judge Gregory Presnell of the Middle District of Florida resolved it the only reasonable way available to him.
He ordered them to play Rock Paper Scissors.
The ruling in Avista Management v. Wausau Underwriters is worth reading in full, but the operative section is direct:
"Upon consideration of the Motion — the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts — it is ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED. Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one (1) game of 'rock, paper, scissors.' The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location for the 30(b)(6) deposition to be held somewhere in Hillsborough County during the period July 11–12, 2006."
The dispute was about whether the deposition would happen at one law firm's offices or another, the two offices being four floors apart in the same building, or at a court reporter's office down the street. The actual stakes were negligible. The attorneys had made them judicial by refusing to agree.
The attorneys resolved the matter without publicly playing the game, likely to avoid the photographs and the coverage that would have followed two lawyers throwing hand gestures on courthouse steps. Judge Presnell got his outcome either way.
The ruling stands as one of the cleaner examples of a court using Rock Paper Scissors as a legitimate mechanism for resolving a deadlock — which the WRPSA notes is one of the game's most ancient and defensible uses. When two parties have equal claims to something trivial and cannot agree on a tiebreaker, a three-gesture simultaneous throw is faster and fairer than most available alternatives. Judge Presnell understood this. The attorneys, eventually, also understood this.