Smart Parenting During and After Divorce: Appearing Before a Judge

What Not to Do in Front of a Judge

It may seem as if judges are distracted when they are flipping around through papers at the bench, but most good judges that I know can tell you everything that is happening in their courtrooms. This brings me to my first piece of advice about how to act in front of a judge: if you absolutely must do something stupid, discourteous, or hostile, do not do it in front of your judge.

Here are some other tips:

• Do not start an argument in front of a judge.
• Do not wisecrack or joke in front of a judge. It might not offend the judge, but the point is that you do not know whether it will or won't. So don't.
• Some people laugh nervously or joke when they are nervous.
• Do not do either.
• Do not chew gum.
• Do not appear before a judge in jeans or a ripped T-shirt. Wear nice, professional clothes.
• Do not go in your prom attire.
• Do not wear heavy cologne or perfume.
• When a judge speaks to you, look at her, think before you speak, and answer in the shortest possible sentence to get your point across. If a judge asks you a yes or no question say "Yes," "No," or "I don't know," and then add "Your Honor."
• Do not interrupt someone else, jump in when someone else is speaking, or blurt out, "He's lying." The most patient judges in the world will politely tell you three, maybe four times not to interrupt. After that, you may be warming up the bench of a jail cell.
• If you are being represented by an attorney, let your attorney do all of the "lawyer stuff." Do not act like an attorney. If you are representing yourself (which is not a good idea) and the judge seems to be ignoring your side of the story, wait for a break in the conversation and say, "Excuse me, Your Honor:
• When it is possible, may I address the court?" If a judge denies you the opportunity to speak, it is either a very good or very bad sign. It is probably a good sign if the judge has not yelled at you for anything and seems to be perturbed at the person on the other side. If the judge does not want to hear from you in this case, it usually means, "Quit while you are ahead." Some judges will tell you this directly. If a judge will not let you speak and you have been making a nuisance of yourself, and the judge has been telling you to be quiet, it is probably a good idea to remain quiet and wait until the judge asks whether you have anything more to say.
• If you have done something that obviously offends the judge, apologize if you have the opportunity. Apologizing is different from "sucking up." Apologize by saying, "If I offended the court, I did not mean to, and I am sorry." Do not go overboard in an obvious effort to endear yourself by turning one simple sentence into a speech. Judges do not like to listen to speeches, from lawyers or litigants. A speech, by the way, is different from an explanation. A speech is self-serving and repeats the same point over and over ad nauseam. An explanation is when you answer a judge's question in a point-by-point manner. When judges ask you a question, they want you to answer the question they asked and not the question you wish they had asked. There is a difference, and judges know the difference. When a judge asks you, for instance, what you were doing in your living room when there was a stay-away order that instructed you not to be in the house, do not start by saying, "Well, Your Honor, my wife would not give me my baseball trophies and my hunting rifles, even after I asked her. She wants to ruin me and make me penniless and homeless. . ." Similarly, if the judge asks you, "Ma'am, why hasn't your husband received his court-ordered visitation for the last three weekends?" don't answer, "Well, Your Honor, Mr. Smith has owed me $600 in unreimbursed medical expenses for more than four months." The correct answers to these questions are "I should not have been in the living room, Your Honor," and "There should have been visitation on those weekends." Most lawyers will tell you that judges already know the answers to a lot of the questions they ask—they just want to see if you know the answers to those questions.

Any lawyer who advises you to answer a question that has an obvious answer with an excuse is taking the chance of putting you in a bad position with a judge. There is a right time to bring up your agenda. Lawyers who understand this timing are usually great lawyers. Lawyers who don't get you in trouble.

Giving Testimony Before the Judge

There may come a point when you have to give sworn testimony. If that time comes, you will be asked questions by all of the lawyers involved in a case, and probably by the judge. Good lawyers prepare their clients well in advance by helping them understand the types of questions that will likely be asked. Your lawyer will probably be asking the easy-to-answer questions. Other lawyers involved might try to make you angry or frustrated, or to twist your words. Do not try to outthink the lawyer who is asking you questions you do not want to answer. Do not try to outwit a lawyer or beat her at her own game. Lawyers can be jerks, but even bad lawyers have been asking witnesses questions longer than you have been answering them. Your best bet is to answer directly and truthfully. You are allowed to answer "I don't know," or "I don't remember," but if it is obvious that you are saying these things simply to avoid giving a truthful answer, no one will buy it, and by "no one" I mean primarily the judge.

It is better to look bad and honest than to be identified as a liar. Your lawyer will likely tell you what to admit and what to try to avoid admitting. I don't think it is a good idea to lie about anything. Nor do I think it is a good thing to "avoid telling the truth." Lawyers do not always advise their clients to be completely forthcoming. In the end, it is your choice. You can do what your lawyer tells you to do, or you can tell your lawyer that it makes you feel very uncomfortable to avoid answering certain questions or to lie. The bottom line is that lying from the witness stand is very risky business. In my experience, most judges are way too smart to be fooled more than once or twice.

Your lawyer's mistakes and misbehaviors in the courtroom in front of a judge will ultimately influence the decision the judge makes about you. This is not true 100 percent of the time, but it is true enough of the time. Sometimes judges feel sorry for you because you are represented by an attorney who is making you look bad. Only you can determine whether your attorney's style is hurting your case, so pay attention. Your attorney may think your judge is prejudiced, biased, incompetent, or not paying close attention. It is up to her to overcome that with good lawyering and by adapting to the situation. As a litigant you should remain respectful to the judge at all times.

Always Be Respectful

I will close this topic with a story about a man who stood before a judge whom he did not think was treating him fairly. The man did not say a word, but was obviously examining and scanning the area of the floor under the table with his eyes. The behavior was so distracting that the judge asked the litigant, "Sir, what in heaven's name are you looking for down there?" The litigant replied, "I am looking for justice." Almost everyone in the courtroom chuckled, even the court officers. The one person who was not chuckling was the judge. Needless to say, that person did not fare well at the end of the case.

You cannot hurt the outcome of your case by being respectful to a judge. On the other hand, you can definitely hurt the outcome of your case by being disrespectful.

Quick Tip

• Be very careful. Many judges can "see you" without directly looking at you and are very aware of your mood and demeanor in court.
• Be honest and not evasive. Lots of times, judges already know the answers to the questions they ask.
• It is better to admit making mistakes than to lie about them. Most of us who work in the court system know that people are imperfect. As a matter of fact, most of us expect you to be imperfect and are suspicious when you seem too good to be true.