Dress Professionally In Court

Video Transcribed: My name is Brian L. Jackson and I’m an Oklahoma father’s rights attorney and I’m coming to you here today to talk to you about a subject that’s fairly important, at least if you find yourself in the midst of any kind of a custody litigation situation. You need to know how to present yourself in court.

And this one is going out to you guys and dads out there, whether you’re going to court over custody, if you’re unfortunate enough to find yourself facing a protective order or if you’re prosecuting a protective order, or any of those situations where you find yourself walking into a courtroom.

We’re going to talk today about the appropriate way to present yourself in court. And this is really important. Walking in the door, judges don’t know you in most cases. You are a stranger to them.

So, you’re making a first impression when you walk in that door. And it’s no different than if you’re going to a job interview, you want to give a good impression. So, how can you do that? Well, number one, you want to dress professionally.

What does that mean? Well, you see how I’m wearing a suit and tie? This is how you want to look and you want to carry yourself in a professional way in front of the judge, especially if you’re in a situation where you’ve been accused of something, for example, if you’re in protective order court, accused of domestic violence or stalking or whatever, the last thing you want to do is walk in there and either have an attitude or look angry or look like some creepy stalker type.

So, some things to consider, and there are obvious things. And guys, I’m not telling you guys anything you don’t already know, make sure you look nice, make sure that you’re wearing nice clothes, make sure you are dressed professionally and you carry yourself professionally.

And when you talk to the judge it’s, ” Yes, Your Honor. Yes, Judge.” Or “Yes, sir.” Or if it’s a female judge it’s, “Yes, Your Honor. Yes, Judge.” You want to be very respectful of the judge.

Even if you think the reason you’re there is total garbage and you’re upset with the reason you’re there, you’re upset with the way you’ve been treated and you have every right to be in some of these cases if you’re in there on a nonsense protective order or if your wife’s taken your or your girlfriend has taken your kids away and won’t let you see them, you have every right to be upset.

Here’s the problem, you walk in there looking angry, the court could interpret that as supportive of a negative allegation. It could make the judge view you in a certain way that may not be helpful to your case because again, they don’t know you.

How about testimony? How should you present yourself in testimony? Sometimes this is going to be very fact-specific. However, what I can generally tell you is that in court proceedings where you testify, first of all, you should always tell the truth. Obviously, you’re going to be sworn in and you’re under oath and lying doesn’t help you.

At best, it can hurt your case. At worst, it can result in a criminal charge. And in any of those situations, it’s bad news. So, tell the truth, that’s the thing. Even if the truth seems bad, it’s better, to be honest than to be called a liar.

Secondly, don’t volunteer information you’re not asked for. If you’re testifying, you always want to be very, very careful to listen to the question. And I tell my clients, “Listen to the question, wait for it to be done, count to five, then answer.” That gives you enough time to think over your answer. And a good example of this is if you’re going to ask the question, what color is the sky? The answer is the color of the sky. You don’t need to talk about if it was a cloudy day or not.

You just say, okay, if it’s a clear day, “The sky was blue,” if it’s a cloudy day, “Sky was gray.” The only reason you’d talk about clouds specifically is if you’re asked about clouds. And in the way of an example that’s, generally speaking, how you should approach questions is only answer what’s asked.

Also, do not speculate. This is another one people get trapped in all the time in court. If you speculate and you’re wrong, the judge may not, or whoever the trier of fact is, may not know that you were speculating.

They may think you’re lying, not that you’re mistaken. And even if it’s just an honest mistake and that’s how it’s seen, it still makes it look like you’re less credible. So, don’t speculate. If you don’t know the answer, say, “I don’t know the answer.”

Also, never repeat, and this is a legal rule that kind of can be complicated, but it’s for your attorney to work out, but as a general rule, don’t repeat something somebody else told you, you should only mention things that you personally perceive with your five senses.

Either you saw it, you smelled it, you heard it, you felt it, you tasted it. If it wasn’t one of those five senses, it’s something someone told you, probably don’t want to talk about it.

Don’t try to explain if you’re asked a question, don’t try to explain unless the question calls for an explanation. And when I say calls for an explanation, it would be something like, “Tell me about this day in detail.” Otherwise, don’t.

All of those things are things that, first of all, if you talk too much and your answers are non-responsive to questions, it can annoy judges and that doesn’t help you.

But also, you may inadvertently say something that actually didn’t need to come out and ends up coming out anyway because you opened your mouth. So, be very careful. Only give answers to exactly what was asked.

Some other things you want to be aware of in court, the judge walks in, this is kind of an obvious one, but when the judge walks into the courtroom, make sure you stand. Make sure you make eye contact with the judge when he addresses you when you speak back. And I say, he, he or she, make eye contact. You want to come off a little bit deferential.

You don’t want to talk to a judge the same way you’d talk to your friend at the bar. And you want to avoid things like side comments. In other words, I don’t care how much you don’t like what the judge is telling you, you want to shut your mouth because judges get annoyed real quick with people who make side comments.

And finally, watch your language. Profanity, you have a right to free speech in the United States, but it’s really ill-advised to use profanity in a courtroom even if you’re upset. Don’t use profanity in a courtroom.

And watch your posture and your behavior and your body language at all times while you’re in the court, including when you walk out the door. And while you are in the sight of that judge, then you should be on your best behavior because they’re literally, as the name implies, they’re judging you and they don’t know you other than what they see in that courtroom.

So, be very, very careful about that kind of thing. And your posture and body language can screw you as much as anything that comes out of your mouth.

My name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Dads’ rights attorney in Tulsa, Ok, and we’ve been talking about how to present yourself in court.