On dealing with barking judges
Even if a judge angrily barks at me that I am making a frivolous argument, as long as I know I have a solid legal and factual basis for making my argument, I can often neutralize and even turn the judge around by calmly, directly and succinctly saying my grounds for pursuing a particular argument. If the judge acts or speaks as if s/he wants to hear nothing further from me on the topic, I can sometimes still get a persuasive word in — without running afoul of the judge’s rulings — by taking a particularly non-confrontational approach, sometimes along the lines of just simply saying: "Thank you for ruling. I just wanted to make you aware of yesterday’s appellate opinion that guarantees the same protections for my client that I just argued for." How is the judge going to silence me now? Most people, judges included, do not want to lose face unnecessary. Here, I have just offered the judge and opposing lawyer a copy of yesterday’s dispositive court opinion , that they simply have not gotten around to reading yet; I have saved them time by finding the case for them, as well...
Judges must strive to be calm and caring Solomons. If they cannot or do not want to follow such a path, they are in the wrong line of work...
https://katzjustice.com/persuading-and-not-fearing-judges-by-seeing-them-as-just-one-of-us/
#Judges #VirginiaCriminalDefense #TrialPersuasion