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Scott Benton: Hey everybody. It’s Scott Benton, your host on the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. How are you? This podcast is dedicated to helping you easily make the transition from law school student into your professional career as an attorney and to underscore that the practice of law is fun and Entertaining it’s something that you’re going to enjoy quite a bit especially if you use the tools that we talked about on this podcast specifically the success cycle, which is going to teach you, how to practice as an attorney.
And we are here to arm you to the teeth with everything that you’re going to know so that when you move into your first job as an attorney, you’re going to be able to know how to do it. Something that law schools don’t typically teach you they’re not in the business of teaching you how to practice law, they’re in the business of getting you to graduate law school and prepare for the bar the bar prep courses, of [00:01:00] course are also not there to teach you how to practice law. They are there to get you to pass the bar.
So, that’s what we’re in business for the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast is here to help you make that transition, easily, so let’s get to it.
Scott Benton: Today’s question is, what do you do if you are in a courtroom and you’re sensing animosity? What do you do if you sense animosity while you’re in a courtroom?
And this is a very important question because sometimes you probably have heard that occasionally violence can break out in a courtroom and that’s something you want to remain vigilant towards and prevent at all costs. Now, clearly hearings and trials, they can right now take place in two different ways.
So you can do a hearing virtually on a platform like Zoom. And in that case, if you’re sensing animosity or any sort of tensions rising or problems in that kind of hearing, [00:02:00] then it’s really not something you need to worry about because the judge, the bailiff, the clerk, they can all mute people’s microphones.
They can turn their camera feeds off if they need to, if there’s any sort of disruptive problem that can be handled from any of the court personnel really, and it’s nothing that you really need to concern yourself about because if it’s obviously a virtual hearing, no one is really going to get hurt that way.
However, sometimes you are going to find yourself in an actual courtroom in person and both parties opposing parties are going to be represented there. And in those settings, there is more of an opportunity for animosity to be present, which can be much more disruptive. And that’s something that you want to really pay attention to as time goes on when you’re in a sort of a situation where everybody is in a courtroom.
Now, for [00:03:00] context, a lot of times, let’s say it’s a will contest or something like that. And people have been fighting over a will for instance, for six months or a year, and maybe it’s been a bitter fight. It’s torn families apart, money and wills sort of has the potential to do this.
And people who previously had each other’s backs without for each other, loved each other. Close family members can be torn apart through all kinds of money issues that come up. And If that’s the situation, and you are now in a courtroom where tensions are pretty high, people are worried about their financial concerns, they’re feeling betrayed, whatever the situation is.
There can be a certain amount of animosity. That will be present in that courtroom. So you do want to keep your finger on the pulse of those sort of tensions going on. Now, the good news is that you do have a bailiff in the court. You do have a court clerk, you have the judge, you have others who [00:04:00] are in the court and they’re going to be paying attention to both parties.
They’re going to be really kind of taking the temperature of everybody. Even in the seating gallery, people oftentimes will So, well, sometimes they’ll make comments, they’ll sort of snicker, they’ll, you know, say things out loud that they’re not supposed to do, but all those comments and certain kind of nonverbal actions, verbal and nonverbal can kind of contribute to those rising tensions.
And so, all of the court personnel are going to be paying very close attention to any of those dynamics that are going on and if necessary, they’re going to eject people from the courtroom. So, this is something that’s going to be observed anyway, but in your case, you could already have information about sort of rising kind of temperatures and tensions and animosities that have occurred prior to your court date.
[00:05:00] Prior to the time that you were all in the same room together. And, you know, maybe there’s been verbal threats made or even written threats sometimes. And if that’s the case, and if you think you’re going into a situation that’s going to be somewhat volatile, that’s going to have animosity to it, that potentially could lead to fist flying or some kind of violent outburst.
Although that’s rare, it does happen and you want to be aware of that. And if there are threats leading up to that day in court, whether it’s a hearing trial or whatever, when you’re all in that same space together, then you do have an opportunity to do a few things and you want to pay attention to those.
First and foremost, you want to be able to talk to your client about this and you want to bring up that there are potential hostilities that are kind of going on, you know, whether it’s from your client or from the opposing party, or from people in the seating gallery, [00:06:00] you want to make sure that you’re communicating with your client regularly about those issues.
You want to sort of see where your client is with those. And if there is any potential, so like if verbal threats have been made or whatever, one of the things you can do is contact the bailiff the day before and let them know of your concerns. So you want to stay as communicative as possible with them.
You want to express those concerns. You want to let them know that tensions might be flying a little high, that if their threats have been made, that those have been made. And you want to let them know that there could be some potential for a kind of an outburst of some kind.
And it’s just so the courtroom team is sort of, postured and ready for something to potentially happen so that they’re paying attention. They’re as vigilant as you are. about what’s going on in the courtroom during the time of the hearing or the trial. So that’s something you can do. You can always call up the bailiff and [00:07:00] express your concerns with them.
Now they are going to be, as I said, paying attention to these dynamics anyway. This is a normal kind of observational sort of a responsibility of the court personnel. They are going to be paying attention to that. If people from the seating gallery or whatever. If they be, If anybody becomes disruptive, then the judge typically will stop the proceeding and they will ask people to either quiet down or restrain themselves somehow to sort of contain their behavior, the behavioral outbursts.
Or if they just can’t, then they’re going to be dismissed from the courtroom either for the day or for the remainder of the hearing. So there you do have layers of sort of protection if you want to call it that and you do have the courtroom personnel who they’re going to be, the bailiff and the clerks and the other people that are present in the courtroom, they’re going to be paying attention to all kinds of issues that are going on in the court.
But you do want to do everything you can to [00:08:00] mitigate the chance of there being any sort of outburst of any kind. And in your conversations with the bailiff the day before, should you call the bailiff or even the day of if you’re still concerned, then you can always have your client waiting in the cafeteria for instance, or maybe there’s another room available somewhere that you can have your client in.
So that they’re away from the courtroom and they’re away from the opposing party and they’re not going to sort of contribute to any of those hostilities if they are in fact building and if they are in fact reaching a point where you’re starting to get a little concerned about it, they can be in the cafeteria or some other space that’s outside of the courtroom.
And then when you need them, when you need to bring them into the courtroom, then they can be brought into the courtroom and then immediately leave, to help sort of keep those tensions as tampered down as you can possibly keep them. So you do have options.
Now, after the day, after your day in court, after the hearing, [00:09:00] there may be a situation where either you or the client, doesn’t really feel comfortable going to the parking lot afterwards because there may be some concern that somebody in the opposing party is going to accost them, and you can request that the bailiff escort you or your client, or both of you, to your cars in the parking lot so that everyone, everyone is safe at the end of the day and everybody can get home okay.
Like I said, courtrooms are sort of, very pressured environments. A lot’s at stake usually. By the time something has reached a trial level, even a hearing level there’s a lot of concern and a lot of consequences, either good consequences or bad consequences for everybody involved, certainly for the two sides.
And so tensions can be pretty heightened, especially if there’s been six months to a year or more of fighting that has gone on. But the good news is that if there are animosities or tensions in a courtroom to answer the question in this [00:10:00]podcast, you do have a lot of options that you can exercise.
And again, you want to make sure that you’re communicating with your client. You want to call the bailiff of the court the day before or speak to them the day of if you’re not able to get a hold of them the day before and you want to be sure to make plans to help keep everything on an even keel so that there are no outbursts or fist flying or violence that just sort of happens.
People can be very unpredictable if there are disruptions coming from the seating gallery, then those can certainly be taken care of. You can always express your concerns to the bailiff at that point as well.
So, I hope this has been I hope this has been helpful. I hope this has been useful and good information. As a new attorney you may not find yourself in a courtroom or in a hearing that is in person anytime soon. I mean, you might, so you want to be prepared for this, but you always want to remember that you do have options if you’re not comfortable, if you’re starting to sense that things are starting to go a little sideways, that you can take steps to [00:11:00] help mitigate those potential problems that could come along and keep anything from happening.
So I hope this has been helpful information to you. If this is helpful, if you’re enjoying the Classroom 2 C ourtroom podcast, and you would like to receive alerts every time we put out a new podcast, you can go to our website. Our website is Classroom2Courtroom.com.
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We have a tool that we frequently talk about on this podcast called the success cycle, and it’s going to help you practice law as you make that transition into your first position as a ticketed attorney having passed the bar. Congratulations!
If you do like this material, don’t forget to share like and subscribe We hope you’ll join us on the next episode of the Courtroom 2 Classroom podcast. And until then we [00:12:00] hope you will join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time Thank you so much and take care.
