So yesterday I reached a huge milestone in my law school career. I argued my first motion before a judge in District Court and my opponent was a jack@$$ defense attorney who did his best to bully me before we even stepped into the courtroom. It was dramatic and very entertaining. A little background. My supervisor assigned this case where the court had previously granted the defense's motion to allow defense experts to be present at firearms testing. This is an out of the ordinary court order because firearms testing at issue is non-destructive. Defense only has a right to be present at destructive testing. So I was tasked with drafting a memorandum asking the court to reconsider. So, already I'm off to a bad start. I have to basically tell the judge that he was wrong! And because it's my motion, I have to argue first which means my opponent can rebutt and tear my argument apart. So, I drafted the motion, it was blessed by my supervisor, copied to the DA and the defense atty, and off we go to the hearing.
As you can imagine, I was more than a bit anxious. The court was overflowing with defense attorneys, ADA's, interns, and defendants. Packed. A full house. People were standing around. As I looked around, I started to get even more nervous. I have to argue in front of all of these people? Gulp. Sweat. Gulp. Sh*T. What am I going to say? Um. What's my argument? OMG. I can't remember anything. PANIC. First Call!! It takes an hour. Why didn't they call us? Inquire. They call us. BPD! Opposing counsel? Not here. 2nd call so that the clerk can locate counsel. Another hour passes. Counsel shows and the judge advises him that he will hear our arguments after the court breaks so that he can read our memo. Counsel is not happy. Neither are we, but at least the judge is going to read our memo. We've also scored points because counsel was not there for first call and we made a point of telling the judge that he knew of the date because we initially set the date together. The court breaks at 11:30 for "15 minutes" - more like an hour!
Finally court is back in session and we are called. I address the court and deliver my opening statement to which the judge respectfully listens and begins firing questions at me. Of course, I stumbled here and there, acutely aware that all eyes are upon me. And trying like hell to remember the facts of the case (SJC decision from 91) that he's asking me about. Yikes! But I held my own and gained some momentum. I'm up there for like 20 minutes! The defense counsel then has his turn. Although his argument was a load of crap and I mean just that. He was lying, exaggerating, making accusations alleging that the PD would mishandle the evidence, and using case law that was off-point. He didn't have any legal arguments! He also made a point to say that the PD didn't have standing b/c the Commonwealth agreed to the earlier motion and didn't object! Which was a bold-faced lie! The judge didn't miss a beat. He said no, I distinctly remember the ADA objected, I have a note of it here. And the DA also spoke up and contradicted. The pair on this guy! He went on to say that it was ridiculous that we were fighting him on this b/c courts allow and order defense experts to present all the time at firearms testing. Another bold-faced lie. ON and ON. This guy lied about things that were easily contradicted - he was ridiculous. And he couldn't shut up even when it was obvious that the judge's patience was getting thin. Finally, we got to rebut and address his allegations. Superstar litigator, my supervisor, stepped up and blew him out of the water on a number of procedures. I wanted to go after the guy again but it's best that my supv did at that point b/c I didn't have the knowledge or skill to challenge some of the assertions. After 45 minutes of intense discussion (which is extraordinary in a court that rushes through cases by only allowing a few minutes), the judge set another hearing date so each party could provide additional facts.
Afterwards, my supervisor told me that I did a great job. It was nerve-wracking but exciting and I am very proud of my performance especially given the circumstances of opposing counsel's arrogance. I didn't crack under pressure or choke. I kept hammering away at my points and undercutting the opposition's lack of legal argument. IT WAS GREAT!
