Five ways to make your day in court easier

Ben Hall

Attending court is stressful, even for seasoned lawyers ... so check out these tips to make the day a little easier to handle.

If you are facing a day in court, for whatever reason, it is likely you are feeling one or more of the following emotions:

    •    Anxiety
    •    Nausea
    •    Fear
    •    Anger
    •    Sorrow
    •    ... and maybe hope

No matter what your mix of emotions, there are some age old tried and true tips for making your time in the court easier.

Usually the worst part is the lead up to the court day, when uncertainty is at its maximum ... you may be unsure about when to speak, what to say, what the court looks like, what the judge will be like and just unsure about everything, generally. 

1. Watch some legal films
This tip may seem trite, but the truth is that knowledge is power and if you watch a legal drama (and they usually end with the underdog winning) you will begin to feel as though you yourself have been through the judicial process.

Courts behave in more or less the same way around the world, so don’t worry that the film was based in the US or the UK if you don’t live there. The gist will be the same. And of course, the better the film the better your vicarious experience of the legal drama will be.

Some good legal dramas / comedies to get you started are: 

    •    A Few Good Men
    •    12 Angry Men
    •    Kramer Vs Kramer (a good family law movie)
    •    Boston Legal

2. Hire a lawyer!
If you don’t want to take on the responsibility of knowing what to say and when to say it in court yourself, hire a lawyer! Lawyers are highly trained professionals whose job it is to understand the legal process and that includes the procedures that guide the functioning of a law court. Your lawyer can tell you when to sit, when to stand, when to speak, when to remain silent and best of all your lawyer can speak entirely on your behalf in almost all circumstances. 

Furthermore, judges are often stressed out and very busy individuals, so he or she will appreciate a professional lawyer who doesn’t waste time or waffle with irrelevant nonsense (which happens to the best of us when we’re confused and out of our depth!). Knowing that your lawyer is there to hold your hand is a very good way to make your court experience a bit easier. 

3. Visit the court 
Most courts in Australia are open to the public (except in certain circumstances where the judge orders that the matter be closed to the public) so you are almost guaranteed to be able to find a court hearing to wander into on any given week day. 

Make sure you’re dressed respectably, bow to the judge when you walk into the court room and sit back and watch how the lawyers, plaintiffs, defendants, judges, bailiffs, reporters and everybody else in the room behave.

You will be amazed at how this reduces the confusion and anxiety you feel ... particularly if the court you’re visiting is the same court you’ll be appearing in!

4. Research the law yourself!
These days there is a wealth of free legal information available on the Internet and of course from the good old fashioned library. It will do you a world of good to understand the background of your own legal matter including what the relevant legislation is (the Family Law Act 1974 (Cth) for example) and what judges have decided about similar matters in the past.

Of course your lawyer can answer these questions for you but you are also at liberty to empower yourself through your own research. Who knows, you may even discover something that your lawyer and/or the judge haven’t thought of ... and that could be the turning point in your case! 

5. Put yourself in the 'officious bystander’s' position
This archaic term ‘officious bystander’ means the ‘neutral or third party observer’. Although you are probably certain that you are in the right, consider what somebody who has never met you would think when viewing your scenario for the first time. 

Not only have they never met you, they neither like nor dislike you ... they are ambivalent about you and about your matter. This bystander’s only concern is that justice is applied to the legal situation. 

If you can put yourself into the shoes of this bystander you have gone some way towards standing in the judge’s shoes and this will enable you to predict what a judge will say about your matter and reduce the likelihood of you making outlandish remarks or unreasonable demands of the court. It will also prep you for an adverse judgement, so this is a critical step to take towards preparing yourself for your day in court.

Love Law is an Australian website providing free online family law consultations that reduce the price of legal advice and connect visitors with trusted Australian family lawyers.

If you liked this article you might also be interested in these other articles about divorce in Australia:

How to be prepared for when 'I do' becomes 'I don't'

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Author's Biography

Ben Hall is a lawyer and the Managing Director of Love Law, a new Australian website providing free online family law consultations that reduce the price of legal advice and connect visitors with trusted Australian family lawyers.