The rollercoaster of a trial

Going to a trial or court-hearing can be mind-numbing for a client. All of the uncertainty and doubt can lead to exhaustive emotions. However, court need not be such an overwhelming event, if you understand what it is all about.

Showing up for trial and feeling good about it is less about what you do in court and more about what you do in preparing for court. It starts with making sure that you have all of your witnesses identified and contacted well before you need them. While the attorney certainly needs to do this (and you should stay on top of your attorney to make sure he or she does so), the first responsibility for making sure this happens falls on the client. So, if you want to feel confident about a positive result in court, make sure that your witnesses have been lined up and are ready to appear for you.

Witnesses fall into three categories: 1) your friends, family members and neighbors; 2) folks you do not know that well, but you feel can help you; and 3) people you are sure will be hostile toward you. The first category falls strictly on the shoulders of the client. An attorney should not need to track down “favorable” witnesses to secure their involvement.

The middle category is sort of a mixed bag; sometimes the client should make the first contact, sometimes the attorney should. Make sure that you and your attorney clearly understand who is doing what concerning these witnesses.

The last category of witnesses is why you hire an attorney. Don’t go anywhere near them. Your attorney can either, in a civil case, take their deposition or in a criminal case hire a private investigator to interview.

Labeling someone as a “witness” is often not an easy task. I am shocked sometimes at how clients fail to grasp the importance of, say, the neighbor who sees daily what activities occur next door. The point is that a “witness” is not just someone who observed a specific event, a witness may be someone who heard something or who has a document in their possession or simply can talk about a good person you are.

Concomitant with working on the witness list, the next means for a litigant to feel good about court is to gather up all available evidence. This situation parallels the three categories of witnesses, although when it comes to evidence, the client is going to probably provide the bulk of it and, hence, shoulders the lion’s share of the responsibility to make sure that everything useful is in the attorney’s office.

Evidence is as “squishy” a concept as a witness. At its core, evidence proves a fact, but that fact may be a small part of a larger chain that has more cosmic meaning. For example, if you are arguing that the guy down the street in the red Ford committed the burglary, not you in yours, having a witness come in to testify that they live next to the guy down the street, and they know that he drives a red Ford. This does not prove who committed the burglary, however, it does prove a fact as a thread in a tapestry of a larger argument or point.

The last part about feeling confident about court is … you. This is something a skilled trial attorney knows and he or she will want to spend several hours with you preparing you for what to expect in court, how the trial will be conducted and preparing you to testify. An attorney can only have an inkling on how prepared a client feels about court. This means you really need to press your attorney for time for meetings and answers to all of your questions. Don’t be shy or think your attorney is too busy to help you with this.

If all of these steps are followed, you will arrive in court ready and confident. This will make you a better client and your attorney will have an opportunity to really maximize your result. Keep these principles in mind the next time your case is called for a hearing.

Local attorney Jim Rockefeller owns the Rockefeller Law Center and is a former Houston County chief assistant district attorney and a former Miami prosecutor. Visit www.rockefellerlawcenter.com to submit confidential legal questions and to review former articles and frequently asked questions.

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