Recently, I had a client who knew he was going to testify at a workers’ compensation trial. We spent some time preparing our client in order to make him more comfortable with what he was going to have to endure. I asked him many questions and gave him advice about how the process would take place. This was to help prepare him and me for the hearing. By asking him questions that increasingly asked for more detail as we discussed the case, we were able to look for issues that needed to be explored at and before the hearing.
We got to court early and watched the trials before us. Our client quietly asked questions and I explained to him the process that was taking place. He seemed nervous, and I did my best to comfort him by emphasizing we had prepared fully and he simply should tell the truth. As time grew closer for us to cross the bar between watching and becoming active participants, I could tell he was growing more anxious. We stepped outside and talked over a few aspects of his case before going back in.
At the hearing, I watched his frustration as another witness testified to facts differently than ours. My client leaned over to me and said, “He’s lying”. I tried to let my client know that I realized this at the same time as trying to listen to the testimony. I could feel his frustration. He was forced to sit there and listen to things that he felt in his heart were not true. He simply wanted to stand up, point his finger at the person the witness stand, and call him a liar. But that is not the way things are handled in our judicial system. Thankfully he did not do that. Instead, he waited for us to expose the inconsistencies and problems with the other side’s story.
Watching a court proceeding is quite different than being part of the proceeding. There is no way to be fully prepared because you don’t know exactly what or how you will be asked to explain your side. I can not imagine going into that type of situation without a lawyer. I can not imagine trying to tell my story, trying to explain my side, trying to convince those who would decide my fate that my cause is righteous, and trying to figure out the procedure by myself.
I am thankful for what I do. I am thankful to be a person who people look to at a time when they desperately need an advocate who speaks the language of the court. It is a language that seems all too foreign and hostile to those who stand outside looking in.
