Az Family Trial No Conclusiond of Lae Made by Opposing Lawyer
Strategies for More Effective Trial Presentations in Family Police Proceedings
Categories: Family Law, Commodity
On September 21, 2018, the Executive Council of the Family Law Section of the State Bar, past and present Family Law Judges, as well as experienced practitioners, gave 24 participants the opportunity to hone their skills in the Family unit Police Trial Higher. The suggestions, thoughts, and ideas that were discussed benefit any Arizona family law attorney, regardless of their years of feel. As moderator of the college, I am sharing some of those insights.
Know Your Guess
In an Arizona family law trial, at that place is an audience of only one, a judge and no jury. Gather as much information nearly your guess as possible. At minimum, advisedly review the biography of the judge on the Maricopa Superior Court website or the resource bachelor in your county. Google the judge. Assemble data from colleagues who have appeared before this judge or who accept information near his or her pre-judicial background and experience. Obtain and review FTRs of the estimate presiding at a trial where both litigants are represented by lawyers.
Many of the judges accept posted their "preferences" for trial related action on the Maricopa Superior Court website. Utilise the Resolution Management Conference or Return Hearing equally an opportunity to assemble more than information about the gauge relating to trial. For example, some judges will allow leading questions during direct examination because of the time constraints imposed on the lawyers. Know if this judge ascribes to that practice before you begin your trial preparation.
Provide a Articulate Roadmap
Your guess is not an encyclopedia of police force or noesis. In fact, in many cases your judge may know very little about family unit constabulary during his or her first year on the family law bench. Lead the judge to a place they are comfy going, with the result you are seeking to obtain. Ever think "How tin can I help this judge?" The all-time opportunity is the Articulation Pretrial Statement. File it on time. Do not provide a separate Joint Pretrial Argument unless your dissever argument includes the reasons why a Joint Pretrial Statement was not provided. While not the best course, counsel can provide an abbreviated "Joint" Pretrial Statement and attach each of their separate Pretrial Statements.
Country clearly and specifically what yous want in the Articulation Pretrial Statement. Summarize the significance of each witness, and if the witness is not a party, explain the witness' relationship to the parties. Don't only include a list of your exhibits. You will know which exhibits are probable to describe an objection. In the Joint Pretrial Statement, talk over the objection and make a argument as to why the exhibit ought to exist admitted.
Brainwash the judge in the Joint Pretrial Argument by including discussions of the relevant statutes and case police that back up your position and the relief you are asking the court to grant to your customer.
Exhibits Should Exist Easy to Utilise
Most judges will request a bench volume of the exhibits which are either delivered prior to trial or presented on the day of trial. In order for the judge to follow your presentation and adopt your reasoning, it is critical that the judge be able to read and understand your admitted exhibits during trial. At the trial conclusion and before they make their decision, the guess is going to take iii things dorsum to their chambers to review - a re-create of the Joint Pretrial Statement, the exhibits, and their notes.
They will not admit voluminous exhibits into evidence, even when the Joint Pretrial Statement stipulates to the admission of the exhibits. First, the judge does not have the fourth dimension to review hundreds of pages of documents and second, they practise non want to create a tape on appeal that includes information that he or she has not specifically reviewed in making their conclusion. Skin down the number of exhibits that you need the court to have in guild to grant the relief that you are requesting.
When possible, summarize voluminous data. For example, there is rarely the need to take hundreds or thousands of pages of bank and credit card statements admitted into testify. Summaries can be provided of deposits, withdrawals or specific transactions that y'all are questioning. Rule 1006 of the Arizona Rules of Evidence provides that if y'all have made all of the documents used in the training of the summary timely available to the opposing political party or counsel prior to trial, those supporting documents do not take to be exhibits and do non even have to exist in the courtroom during the hearing. Witnesses must be prepared to provide the proper foundation for the introduction of each summary. Neither y'all nor your staff can exist witnesses. You cannot simply tell a estimate "We prepared it" as your foundation for the admission of the summary.
Consider how you provide the judge the exhibits in the bench books, specially when there are multiple exhibit binders. It is difficult for a approximate to juggle multiple 3-ring binders - each containing hundreds of pages of documents and twenty or more numbered exhibits - while yous examine a witness and nowadays exhibits located in multiple binders all relating to that witness. Judges may accept small courtrooms and desks. It is difficult and time consuming for them to grab a binder and flip to an exhibit in order to follow along and information technology costs yous time as you lot wait to talk to your witness until the judge has located the showroom. A much better practise is to organize demote books by witness with relevant exhibits in one folder and organized in the aforementioned order that you will address them during the witness' testimony.
Employ visual aids when they will help the judge understand the information. This can be as simple as writing something on the easel found in nigh courtrooms or having presentation boards of of import provisions of an understanding, a bank statement, a letter, or other documents enlarged and highlighted. If there is engineering science in the courtroom use it! If not, bring your own. During the Trial College, one gauge explained that a lawyer presented him with an USB drive as an showroom, stating that certain documents and/or exhibits were all on it. The judge refused to admit the USB drive. All the same, if the lawyer had brought a projector (or monitor) and a device to the courtroom and flipped through the most important documents contained on the USB drive, the judge would have allowed it to exist admitted.
Be In Command
The about effective trial lawyers are in control of themselves and of the court during a trial. Always stand when you address the court or are examining a witness during a trial, including when you brand an objection. Stand at the podium when examining a witness or making an opening or closing statement. Take command of the courtroom; standing is role of that. Avert being hijacked by the feet and acrimony your client may have for the opposing party. Set your client'southward expectations of what to expect in the courtroom. Explain that if you are the conduit to express their anger, you become a less effective advocate and the judge is less probable to be receptive to their positions. Keep control of yourself and avoid hostility with the other lawyer in court and treat each witness courteously and respectfully. Practise not make speaking objections. Avoid confrontations with the witness when cross-examining them. Information technology is far better to say to the evasive witness "Mr. Jones, I have a very limited amount of time in which to present our instance, and therefore it is important that you respond all of my questions straight and not offer your ain thoughts that are non-responsive. I am going to re-ask that question and ask that y'all respond it directly and provide a yes or no respond." This is a more effective arroyo.
Be a Storyteller
In a trial, yous are presenting your client's story. In direct test, it is the client who is the storyteller, not y'all. Practise not ask the client leading questions, simply give the client the opportunity to tell his or her own story. Make it a chat, with your client the star of that chat. Preparation is critical. Practise direct exam with your client and so they are comfortable telling their story. For example, "You accept asked the guess to honour you spousal maintenance; can you explain why you feel you are entitled to it?" After the answer, follow it up: "Did yous contribute to your spouse's earning ability? Can you lot explain what you did that enhanced their earning power?" This is not a chat that your client is having with you lot; it should be a chat your client is having with the judge. Bus your customer to turn and face the gauge and expect at him or her directly when testifying on directly examination.
Yous are a storyteller during cross-test and you are telling the story. On cross-examination almost every question, if non all of your questions, should be leading questions. By using leading questions, y'all are really testifying and when artfully done, the witness volition affirm everything that you lot say. With an evasive witness who offers testimony non directed at your question, the all-time way to control that witness is to object if the answer is "non-responsive" or "unresponsive." This is an objection that just a questioner is allowed to make.
Make It Easy to Follow
Make a brief opening argument to let the judge know what they can expect to hear and the nigh important parts of your presentation and then they ready for and focused on those aspects of the instance. In direct examination, and even on cantankerous-examination, introduce the topics that you are request questions near and make specific citations to statutes, where appropriate, then that the judge knows exactly where the information you are presenting fits in. For example, ARS §25-403 factors and §25-319 factors are all in the templates your approximate is going to use to draft the ruling. When you tell the judge during the presentation of prove that this evidence relates to a specific cistron, the judge knows exactly where in the ruling the data fits; you lot have made it like shooting fish in a barrel for them to walk down the path that you have presented.
These are a few of the helpful ideas offered at the Family unit Law Trial College. When members of the family law bar make better court presentations and practise at a higher level, anybody benefits - especially our clients. Permit's raise the bar in a meaningful way.
Previously published in Arizona Chaser at Police force Magazine – Vol 10. No.7
About the Author: Mitchell Reichman is an Arizona Land Bar board certified family unit law specialist and attorney at the Phoenix constabulary firm of Jaburg Wilk. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale- Hubbell. Mitchell is named a Best Lawyer in America by Best Lawyers, Arizona Top 10 Family Police force Lawyer by Arizona Business Magazine and a Southwest Super Lawyer. Mitch is experienced in representing a variety of high net worth clients.
Source: http://www.jaburgwilk.com/news-publications/strategies-for-more-effective-trial-presentations-in-family-law-proceedings
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