I know I've said it before, but obviously, it bears repeating: no matter if you are testifying or not, if you are in the courtroom, assume the Judge is watching. How hard can that be to understand? Extremely hard, apparently. I was in court today and had front row seats to a terrific example of this principle. Picture this....my client is testifying. I complete my questioning and sit down. Opposing counsel gets up and begins cross examination. Her client....picks up her phone and starts to text. The Judge looks over in her direction and frowns. I follow his gaze. Sure enough, there she is, typing away. A few minutes pass. I glance over again and so does the Judge. She's still tap tapping while her attorney continues her questioning. The Judge and I lock eyes. He's annoyed; I'm baffled. A few more minutes pass. The attorney keeps questioning; her client keeps texting and not paying any attention. The Judge and I keep looking. Now, he's more than annoyed. He calls the attorneys up to the bench. He tells the other lawyer that we're going to take a two minute recess so she can explain to her client how incredibly rude it is to text while her attorney is working her posterior off for her. Amazingly enough, when we came back into the courtroom, the client's phone was nowhere to be seen. What impression do you think the Judge had of her? Not a good one, you can bet. All her attorney's work preparing her to testify, and working on her cross examination of my client was totally undone by her client's behavior in the courtroom. Please learn from her mistake. Here in the Trenches.
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