What Your Own Screaming Children Can Teach You About The Law?

In order to really appreciate this month’s article, you must be the parent of at least two children, preferably 1 to 4 years apart in age. Many of my clients complain that they do everything “right”, unlike the other side. They can’t understand why the other side is not penalized for “wrongful conduct”, meaning anything from filing false declarations under penalty of perjury, testifying falsely at trial or failing to follow court orders. My clients believe that they consistently tell the truth and follow court orders to the letter. They ask why they receive no reward for this conduct.
Well, the simple answer is that Judges are human beings and there are usually three sides to every story. Yours. Mine. And what really happened, which we call “The Truth”. But it gets more complicated. Experienced judges know that people are not always correct with regard to their recollection of events. Sometimes, they just plain forget, without any nefarious intent. One of the first empirical memory experiments was conducted by Ebbinghaus in 1885. He discovered that people were unable to retrieve roughly ½ of information one hour after receiving it. Ebbinghaus H. Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Teachers College, Columbia University; New York: 1885. Besides simply forgetting, memories can also become distorted. We assume that memory is extremely accurate in court. But, unfortunately, it just ain’t true.
So what can our screaming children teach us? Be honest. When your children start fighting with each other, there is only 1 thing that you want. That is for them to shut up!!!! You really don’t care who started it or who is at fault. You in fact have no desire to even find out. You just want the quiet.
So do judges. It is therefore important to pick your battles carefully. If the Judge respects your attorney as someone who is not petty and who only makes a stink when it is deserved, you will see a favorable reaction from the Court. It is akin to the person who cried wolf. Note my wokeness! Speaking of which, the new Batman movie just plain sucked. Robert Pattinson decked out in full makeup wearing a batman costume just ain’t right.
For all of your family law and litigation needs, contact the Law Offices of Richard A. Marcus.