My first appearance in court and I was ready to unleash my legal talents and fight for truth and justice. Three years of wading through law books the size of phone directories and a year of carrying files and briefs (the legal kinds, I mean) for my senior, my day had finally come!!
My senior, a criminal lawyer had finally decided to let me argue a case before the court and here I was in my brand new black suit (which my friends claim makes me look a mix between an undertaker and a usher at some fancy restaurant, but that’s another topic altogether), my unruly hair gelled in place and a look of supreme confidence on face. We were representing a businessman who had been handed a bad check by a crafty gentleman and the businessman had decided to take recourse to the law, which is where Atticus Finch Jr (yours truly) came in the picture. So when the case number is called out in the court of a local magistrate, I get up and give a little tug at the lapels of my suit rather pompously before starting my argument (had seen some butt-kicking lawyer do this in some movie).
“Your Honour….this is a perfect case of the accused trying to circumvent his liability to pay….” this is where the magistrate, a very genial looking chap till now stops me with a glare. “He is trying to what???” he demands with a wrathful bark. “Uh…uh…sir…he...Uh,” I stutter like a retard, completely deflated by now. A few old-timer lawyers, who probably spent their lives in that courtroom discussing cricket scores with the magistrate during uneventful days, snigger at my back. “He is trying to circumvent his liability to pay, sir,” I venture ahead manfully, trying to salvage whatever confidence I had worked up before this shameful interruption. Now the distinguished jurist looks ready to throw the gavel at my gelled head. “Circ…Circle….what was that u said?” he wants to know now. For my part, I just want to crawl into a big hole and bury myself. “Your Honour, may I request for an adjournment? I am afraid this case is too complex for me to argue and my senior is not well today. He would surely appear in court on a given next date and argue the matter out,” I say quickly, a voice in my head screaming at me to take evasive action.
With an affirmative grunt, which also communicates his thoughts that he thinks of me as a cretin with diminished mental capacities, he flicks his pen on a file before me and allows me to go to lick my wounds.
And that was when I learnt my first lesson as a lawyer-“Never use pompous legal jargon while appearing before a local magistrate…they get irritated no end and then decide to make an example out of the ‘yuppie’ by humiliating him”
My senior, a criminal lawyer had finally decided to let me argue a case before the court and here I was in my brand new black suit (which my friends claim makes me look a mix between an undertaker and a usher at some fancy restaurant, but that’s another topic altogether), my unruly hair gelled in place and a look of supreme confidence on face. We were representing a businessman who had been handed a bad check by a crafty gentleman and the businessman had decided to take recourse to the law, which is where Atticus Finch Jr (yours truly) came in the picture. So when the case number is called out in the court of a local magistrate, I get up and give a little tug at the lapels of my suit rather pompously before starting my argument (had seen some butt-kicking lawyer do this in some movie).
“Your Honour….this is a perfect case of the accused trying to circumvent his liability to pay….” this is where the magistrate, a very genial looking chap till now stops me with a glare. “He is trying to what???” he demands with a wrathful bark. “Uh…uh…sir…he...Uh,” I stutter like a retard, completely deflated by now. A few old-timer lawyers, who probably spent their lives in that courtroom discussing cricket scores with the magistrate during uneventful days, snigger at my back. “He is trying to circumvent his liability to pay, sir,” I venture ahead manfully, trying to salvage whatever confidence I had worked up before this shameful interruption. Now the distinguished jurist looks ready to throw the gavel at my gelled head. “Circ…Circle….what was that u said?” he wants to know now. For my part, I just want to crawl into a big hole and bury myself. “Your Honour, may I request for an adjournment? I am afraid this case is too complex for me to argue and my senior is not well today. He would surely appear in court on a given next date and argue the matter out,” I say quickly, a voice in my head screaming at me to take evasive action.
With an affirmative grunt, which also communicates his thoughts that he thinks of me as a cretin with diminished mental capacities, he flicks his pen on a file before me and allows me to go to lick my wounds.
And that was when I learnt my first lesson as a lawyer-“Never use pompous legal jargon while appearing before a local magistrate…they get irritated no end and then decide to make an example out of the ‘yuppie’ by humiliating him”
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