Speaker 1: My name is Jill Brady, and I am a district court judge in the 4th Judicial District in Colorado Springs, and it is my honor today to present to you about how to present your case in court. And in the interest of time and not having an hour-long presentation, I have condensed this presentation into about 10 to 15 minutes to give you all what I think are the most important highlights in terms of how to present your case in court if you don't have an attorney. Couple of quick disclaimers before I get started. Number one is that this presentation is geared toward presenting your case as a civil case, not a criminal case. There are different rules that apply in criminal cases, and so this is geared towards how to present your case when you have a civil matter pending before the court. The other disclaimer is judges have different case management orders for their particular divisions, and some do and some don't. And so the bottom line is a lot of judges have different ways of how they do things in their courtroom. So to the extent that a case management order in the division where your case is pending conflicts with what I'm going to tell you today, follow the judge's orders in your case. This is just intended to give you a really broad overview of some of the basic concepts of evidence and objections and just being prepared and those types of things. The other disclaimer is this is geared towards people who don't have attorneys. So the court system can be really overwhelming, and going to court and presenting a case when you're by yourself without the assistance of an attorney can be really scary for people. So if you have an attorney, rely on your attorney's expertise to guide you through the process. They know all of this information that I am presenting today. And so again, this is geared towards people who don't have lawyers. I'm going to cover about three topics today. So the first topic is just general concepts of evidence, what evidence is, how to be prepared for your hearing. The second topic will be how to actually present your case in the courtroom or just generally what happens when you walk into the courtroom and your hearing begins. And then the third topic is just a really brief overview on what objections are. So we'll talk about evidence and being prepared. When you go into your hearing or your court proceeding with the judge, you don't want the moment you're walking into the door to be the first time that you are thinking about what you're going to say to the judge or what evidence you're going to present. Preparation is really, really important. And when I have people who come into my courtroom for pretrial conferences, I always tell them this is the number one thing you can do for yourself to help yourself when you come into court is to be prepared. What I suggest is that you make a list of whatever the issues are that the judge is going to have to decide in your case. So write them down on a piece of paper or type them on your computer and bring that with you to court so that you know and you're not forgetting anything because you're nervous or you're just overwhelmed or there's too much going on. You know what the issues are that you want the judge to decide in your case or that you think are important in your case. And then write down what your position is so that, again, you can refer to that when you're in court and you know in advance, okay, these are the five things I need to make sure I get across to the judge. Here's my reasoning and here's my explanation or what I think is important. You're also going to want to consider when you're going through those issues, is there any evidence that I'm going to want the judge to consider when I am presenting my case or when the judge is considering what to do in my case? And evidence really consists of two things. Evidence can be any sort of documentation or physical evidence and then it also can be witness testimony. So documentation or physical evidence is really just if you have a piece of paper that contains information, maybe it's a picture, maybe it's an email, maybe it's a text message, something like that, but something that you think, okay, this is something that the judge is going to want to consider in making his or her decision about the issues in my case. So that's kind of a general category of what we would call documentary or physical evidence. There's also witness testimony and I'll talk about that in just a second. Just a quick caveat on exhibits. You want to make sure that you're bringing copies of your exhibits to court. And so if it's text messages, you're bringing copies of those to court so you can actually hand them to the judge and the judge can look at them. For that reason, you don't want to be bringing original documents to court unless there is a reason the original is necessary. You just want to bring copies because we have to keep all of the evidence that is presented at a hearing. So if you present 10 documents, I am keeping those with me so that they can be part of the record in case an appeal is filed. So there's rules about how long we have to keep information as part of the record in the event that somebody files an appeal. Don't bring your original unless it's necessary. Don't bring your only copy and make sure you're bringing extra copies so the judge has a copy that she or he can keep. If you have any electronic evidence, so I mentioned text messages, emails, Snapchats, whatever it is, you have to download that and print it off in a way, again, that can be a hard copy form that the court can keep. What that means is you can't come in with your cell phone and say, judge, can I show you this text message that I got from so and so? That's not going to be acceptable because we can't keep your cell phone. So again, this is where preparation is really important. If you think there's something electronically stored that you want the judge to consider, make sure you're getting that in a hard copy format before your actual hearing. The other thing is if you have audio or video recordings, you're going to want to make sure that you are saving those, again, on a format that the court can keep. So a zip drive or a disc or something like that. Again, you can't come in with your phone and say, can I play this video? Because if you play it and we don't take your phone, we then have no record of that to keep in the court file in case an appeal is vital. Witness testimony is also another form of evidence. And so if you have a person that you, let's say you're writing out your list of issues and you think, oh, my mom would be a really good witness on this particular issue because she has personal knowledge of whatever happened. The rule is that a witness has to have personal knowledge of what is happening or what has happened. And so think about that when you are thinking about who your witnesses are, that somebody who's actually seen, heard, been a part of whatever has happened, and maybe that's somebody that you call as a witness. The courts typically do not accept written letters from witnesses. So if you come in, and I tell people this all the time in my cases, if you come in with a stack of letters that have information, even if that information is really important, it's most likely not going to be admitted. And that's because it's considered hearsay. And I'll talk about hearsay in a little bit when we go over objections. But generally speaking, you want the person to come into court so that they can testify, the judge can assess that person's credibility on the witness stand, and that person can be subjected to cross-examination from the other party, and then possibly field questions from the court. So don't bring in letters. Most judges will not accept those. Even if they're sworn statements, they're most likely not going to be accepted. Make sure your witnesses are in court. If they live in another state or they can't come to court for some reason, then obtain permission from the court in advance for them to appear by phone or video by filing an appropriate motion. If you file your exhibits with the court in advance of the hearing, that is typically okay. But just know that the judge is most likely not going to review those exhibits before the hearing. And I'll tell you what I tell parties in my cases, which is I don't look at any exhibits until they've actually been admitted in the court proceeding. And that's because there may be a rule of evidence that bars that exhibit from coming into evidence. And so if I look at it in advance and then we're at the hearing and I decide, well, actually that's a hearsay statement or it's not relevant or something like that, I've already looked at it. And so that wouldn't be fair to the other party. So you can file your exhibits in advance, but just know that if you file 20 exhibits and you come in and say, well, judge, I filed all my exhibits. So you've probably looked at them. Most judges do not look at exhibits unless and until they have actually been admitted into the court proceeding. All right. So now you're at your court proceeding and what happens? Cases have petitioners or plaintiffs. Those are the people who file the case and then respondents or defendants. Those are the people who the case is filed against. The petitioner usually is the party who goes first in terms of presenting evidence. So the petitioner will present evidence through maybe testimony from the petitioner or testimony from other witnesses. They'll show their documents and get those admitted. And once the petitioner is done presenting evidence, then the respondent or the defendant will present evidence. And again, presenting witnesses, exhibits, those types of things. And then the judge will make his or her decision. Sometimes judges have to take things under advisement, which just means they have to think about it before they can issue an order. So sometimes they'll issue an order right there from the bench. Other times they'll say, I need to take this under advisement and either bring you back for a ruling or issue a written order that will get sent to you. When you are presenting your evidence, if you are calling witnesses and you are not represented by an attorney, it will be your job to conduct what's called direct examination of those witnesses. And that's just another way of saying it's your job to question those witnesses. Again, preparation is critical. You don't want to be deciding what your questions are for a witness when you're standing at the podium or just getting started. You would want to write out your questions, that would be my suggestion, so that you have a nice guide for yourself as to what do I think this person needs to tell the court that's relevant and important. If it's two questions, fine, that's okay. If it's 10, that's okay too. But just know in advance what you're going to ask because you don't want to, again, get up to the podium and then kind of blank out and not know what to ask. Any witness who testifies can be cross-examined by the other party. So if you're the other party, know that you will have the opportunity to cross-examine a witness who testifies, and that's just another way of saying that you get to ask questions of that witness. And so when you're thinking about cross-examination, it can be very hard to prepare for that because you don't know what the witness necessarily is going to say. And so sometimes cross-examination is just on the fly and there's not a whole lot you can do about that. So know that when the judge asks, do you have any cross-examination questions for this witness, you don't have to ask any. When a witness is testifying for the other side, I would suggest if something comes up for you, that you jot it down on a piece of paper so you don't forget, and then you can get up and ask the question on cross-examination. Cross-examination is not an argument, a conversation, a discussion, or your own testimony. So remember that if you are going to cross-examine a witness, that it is limited to questions. Oftentimes people get up and they maybe think the witness didn't tell the truth or they didn't give the whole story, and the other side will stand up and say, Judge, I just want you to know that Ms. So-and-so didn't, that wasn't actually what happened. That's not a proper cross-examination. Again, cross-examination has to be limited to questions and answers from the witness. Also, just remember to be civil to the other side. So a lot of these cases can be very emotional, very difficult, and it may feel like it's impossible to be nice or civil to the other side. But I encourage you to practice that and to do that when you are in the courtroom. And that's because as a judge, I need to get information to make a decision that is following the law and is based on the evidence and information that is presented. It's important to me and my colleagues that you have the opportunity to be heard. And if we are having to manage fights between parties or lack of civility or unprofessionalism, it can waste time and it can also get in the way of our fact-gathering role that we need to be doing when we're in the courtroom. So just remember, it goes so much easier if both parties can be professional and civil with one another. It doesn't mean you have to be incredibly nice or be best friends with the other side, but just practice that basic level of civility and respect, and that can go a long way. The last topic I'm going to talk about is objections. So all evidence has to be submitted and presented and admitted in accordance with the Colorado Rules of Evidence. And you're not represented by an attorney, so you're probably not familiar with those rules of evidence, but I would encourage you all to look them up and familiarize yourself with some of them. Because as unrepresented parties, you are held to the same standard as an attorney in terms of knowing the law. And so familiarize yourself with those rules of evidence, but when I'm deciding whether evidence is going to come in, I am filtering that through the Colorado Rules of Evidence to determine whether it's admissible or not admissible. You can object to the presentation of evidence from the other party, whether it's a witness or a document that the other party is offering into evidence. There are so many objections that could be a valid objection to the admissibility of evidence. I'm not going to go over all of them, but I'll talk about some of the main ones that come up. One is relevance. So is this information relevant to the decision? Not is it exciting or is it interesting, but is it relevant to the issues before the court that the judge is going to have to decide? If it's not relevant, then you as the party offering it really shouldn't be offering it. And if it's not relevant, the other side, if you're the other side, you can object and say this isn't relevant to this narrow issue before the court. Another big objection would be hearsay. Hearsay is a really complicated, complex rule. And so I'll just kind of give you a quick summary of what it is. It's basically, if I'm a witness in a case, remember a few moments ago, I said, I have to have personal knowledge of what I'm testifying about. So I was an eyewitness, I saw this car accident or whatever it is. Hearsay would be if I came in as a witness and I said, I wasn't there at the scene of the accident, but a week after it happened, my mom told me that she was there and she saw A, B, and C. I can't testify to that because I can't talk about what somebody else told me. And so again, the information has to be based on my personal knowledge. And if I come in and say, my mom told me that the car was red and the other car was green, that would be hearsay because it's based on what somebody else told me. There are a ton of exceptions to that rule that I just gave you. So again, that's just a very, very broad overview of what hearsay is, but that's generally what that rule is about. So if that's happening in a case, you can say, I object, that's hearsay. The other one is speculation. And so it's not appropriate if I'm a witness to say, I think so-and-so was thinking A, B, or C, or this is why they did this, unless I actually know I'm speculating as to what somebody else did or thought or something along those lines. Again, I need to talk about my personal knowledge about whatever I'm testifying to. So it's not helpful and it's not admissible for somebody to speculate about something that somebody else did or thought. A proper objection is not that you think the witness is lying. This is an important one because I can almost guarantee this will come up in your case when a witness is testifying. You will be thinking that witness is not telling the truth or that they're not giving the full story or they're misremembering it or the dates are wrong or something along those lines. It is not a valid objection to say, I object, that's a lie, or I object, judge, that's not what happened. There's just no valid objection for that. And the way that you address when you think somebody is not telling the truth or lying, there's really two ways. One is through cross-examination. So a witness is testifying, you think that didn't happen on March 1st, it actually happened on October 1st, and I have a document here that I can show this witness to prove that their date is wrong. On cross-examination, you can show the witness that document or however you do it, and this is just an example, and you can say, didn't this actually happen on October 1st as indicated in this document? Okay, now you've just established that the March 1st date was inaccurate. The other way to address a lie or not the complete story issue that might come up is through your own presentation of evidence. And so let's say the petitioner goes first and the respondent is sitting there and thinking all of this stuff is not what happened or it's not true. Remember, the respondent will have the opportunity to present his or her own evidence. So it's when maybe you take the witness stand or your witnesses take the witness stand, they can say, that's not the truth or that's not the real story. Here's what happened. So you can combat that with your own presentation of evidence. And it's the judge's determination as to credibility. So we assess credibility. We do this all the time where we have two very conflicting stories. That's just something that we have to decide who we believe or who we don't believe. To make an objection, you just say, I object. I object. This is not relevant. I object. You can use a hearsay or whatever your objection is. Just know that if the court sustains your objection, that means that they agree with you and the evidence would not be coming in. It would not be admissible. If the judge overrules your objection, that means that they disagree with you and the evidence would be coming into evidence. The court, remember, is just applying the rules of evidence to any question as to whether a piece of information is admissible. The court overrules your objection and allows the evidence to come in. Don't take it personally because the judge is just applying the rules of evidence. Thank you for watching and I hope this presentation was helpful. If you have any additional questions or legal needs, please contact the Justice Center or visit them online. We wish you the best of luck.