Week 13: Trial (Part 2)

Not much happened yesterday (Saturday), went to work at noon-ish, left work at 8PM, still haven't finished drafting, waiting for Power-Lawyer to review my drafts, then I'll have to go back today, finalize everything, print the motion and the exhibits, and have the client sign.

So we go back to the story of the trial last week, where I had left off at lunch break in the previous story.

We went back to the hearing in the afternoon, and the Judge took it surprisingly well, and the hearing moved on. The opposing party had his cross-examination.

One important thing for a witness during cross-ex, or any examination, is to answer the questions, even if you don't like them. If you try to dance around the question, the Judge isn't stupid and will call you out if you do it often enough. And if you still don't get it, the Judge might call a break, tell your lawyer to explain to you what a cross is about and how you should behave, and lemme tell you that a lawyer does NOT like to be held responsible for that kind of behaviour, and WILL give you a good talking-to.

The cross ended, and it was our client's turn to testify, which went fairly well.


The trial went on for the rest of the day, then the next.

Then we moved on to pleading, and it was lunch. We had 3 hours in front of us before going back to court, as the Judge promised us a "plan" at 2PM.

The Courthouse is conveniently located right outside Chinatown, which means you have a large selection of restaurants for these long lunch breaks. And lucky for us, the hearing ended at 11:30, so we were just ahead of the 12:00 rush when everyone who works around Chinatown go for lunch.

I was then left alone with the client for quite some time, and it got slightly awkward, since she started worrying about the verdict.

I therefore spent the rest of lunchtime giving her a pep talk, and trying to reassure.

We went back to court to get our judgment. It got pretty emotional at some point, which I didn't expect. The judge actually took the time to explain the new realities following a separation and how things should be done in the interest of the children.