A few tips for your day in court.

Here’s a few thoughts that might help you as you go before the judge.

• Dress nice.  Dress as if you were going to church or a funeral.
• Be courteous to the judge.  After all, he or she is the one deciding your case.   Also, I don’t care if you grew up with the judge or not, refer to him or her as “Your Honor”.
• Do not lean on the podium, just stand there, straight up.
• Do not argue with the judge.  It will only make things worse.
• Do not drink or take drugs before you come into court.  Do not drink so much the night before that you still smell of alcohol the next day, in court.
• If you have worked a plea deal out with the DA, do not try to renegotiate it while standing in front of the judge.
• If you tell the judge you are going to get an attorney, go get one.
• Be nice to the clerks and secretaries, often they are the eyes and ears of the judge.

These are just a few tips from the errors I see in court.  I’m sure there are many others out there, but just remember, you are going to court, not Wal-Mart.

This entry was posted on July 18, 2008 at 8:20 am and is filed under Litigation, Criminal Law, Injury Law, General Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.