Don’t Go To Court Alone (Plus, 3 steps to preparing for your appearance)
Walking into a courtroom… There’s a lot of hustle and bustle while attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs and respondents (and a lot of other strangers) gather. As the crowd swells with law enforcement, judges and clerks, it’s hard to know “who’s who”…and the feeling of having them all against you is overwhelming.
Alone. Lost. Uncertain.
And those feelings have a little to do with why you walked into court in the first place.
The outcome of the case, emotions all over the board. I stepped into a courtroom today and went through the mental battle of confusion, unrest, uncertainty, and I wasn’t even there for my own case. I was there to support the attorney on day one of trial.
But as I sat in the back row and just watched all those around me, I could feel the tension, anger, frustration, and growing anticipation of an outcome.
Attorneys are walking around negotiating, chitchatting, joking around, and waiting for the judge to start the docket. The best thing the attorney in our office does, he is the client’s advocate. The client wasn’t in the courtroom until he or she needed to be. Because, the stress of it all can be downright overwhelming.
The client waiting outside the courtroom. Slowly but surely the other attorneys were heard and moved on to other courtrooms or their other daily activities. And the courtroom emptied except for the opposing party and the opposing counsel, the clerk, the bailiff and the witnesses for trial.
Even when the attorneys were visiting with the judge and discussing pretrial motions and a timeline of events, the pit in my stomach was turning. Not because the case wouldn’t go our way, but it’s because of the uncertainty of the legal proceedings. It’s hard to have a slam dunk and a child custody case or a contempt order or a family access motion… People are hurting, and we have to find a remedy for the situation. How can our office help you?
I have always loved the parallel or analogy of Christ being our advocate. We are called to live on this earth like Christ, to do His works, to serve the poor, corporal works of mercy… And as an advocate like Christ well on our judgment day, He will advocate for us to the Father. We will sit at His left and He will help the Lord see the good in that we’ve done in our life. The bad cannot be ignored, but we can shine a beautiful light on the good.
It is hard to find light when it comes to trials, hearings or issues within the courthouse. Where does that darkness come from? It comes from the pain and separation of divorce, broken relationships where there are children but no commitment. But many people find they are exactly there, a child has come from a relationship and now the two people that couldn’t work things out to stay in a relationship, need to work together to figure things out to help the child be productive, healthy, and hopefully happy.
Are you preparing for court? I have three suggestions to help bring some calm the crazy; so that while your attorneys prepare for court, you can prepare yourself emotionally for a big day.
1. If at all possible…don’t take it to court.
Work through everything and settle outside of court so that that pain and frustration and hurt doesn’t become public and doesn’t continually grow or cause pain.
2. Pray for the opposing party.
It is difficult to pray for someone who is hurting or has hurt you; however, there is great healing when one can find the ability to pray for the opposing party.
3. Find an attorney you can trust!
We would love for that to be our attorney, but if not, we will help you find one that works best for you and with you. Call our office today and we will schedule a time for you to meet our attorney for a free consultation to discuss your options.
