Halt this trial in the name of partying!

West Baton Rouge Parish District Judge Alvin Batiste, presiding not far from the campus of Louisiana State University, postponed a trial scheduled to start the day LSU plays Ohio State in the BCS national championship game.

Stephen Babcock, a lawyer defending Imperial Casualty Insurance Co. in a car accident lawsuit, requested the delay partly because he has tickets to the Jan. 7 game at the Superdome in New Orleans. And also because Babcock already rented out the second floor of a Bourbon Street bar for a pre-game tailgate party.

In the written request for a new trial date, Babcock refers to Ohio State as "Slowhio."

"All counsel to this matter unequivocally agree that the presence of LSU in the aforementioned contest of pigskin skill unquestionably constitutes good grounds therefor," Babcock wrote. "In fact we have been unable through much imagination and hypothetical scenarios to think of a better reason.