Ever wonder why in court you can never say anything but the adversary always gets to talk? That is done deliberately by the court and is an offshoot of a policy involving testimonial evidence, representation by counsel and court procedure.
In the typical family case, one side is not represented. That side is allowed to proffer proof verbally to the court. If you are represented by counsel, only your attorney gets to speak and most often it is only in the form of procedural discussion: timing of trial, court assistance in getting evidence and listings of witnesses. So the effect is that the unrepresented person talks ad infinitum peppering the record with that person’s version of the facts while you and your lawyer have no meaningful way to respond because you are not on trial.
This one sided charade continues on the witness stand. One person is given excessive time on the witness stand to build up facts while the other side gets mere minutes. Here is how this is set up.
The court tells you to appear for trial at a general time. The court allows the winning side to present her witnesses first. Typically, non noticed experts appear on the stand, no report, no curricular vitae and no indication of what they will opine about. These experts lay on facts they are not qualified to state. Then comes the winning litigant, the final witness.
She goes on and on about her side of the facts via questions that elicit narrative testimony. In a domestic violence case, the witness will drag on and on about her facts. If your lawyer objects as to narrative testimony, the court will typically overrule your lawyer. This means the winner gets to go on and on about her facts ad nauseum. One day of trial turns into three or four with the same facts being repeated and the same objections being overruled.
Then it is your witness’s turn. The court gives you a “time certain” to appear for his testimony on his case in chief. The losing side arrives with counsel for trial at the time certain to avoid being defaulted. Time passes until just before the lunch hour and the court calls your case. The losing side testifies twenty minutes and lunch is called. The court orders the loser to reappear right after lunch and does so. The case is not called until just before closing and the losing side testifies for another twenty minutes.
This is a mechanism to sanitize the record. Similar to a bath of soap and bleach washing away grains of dirt from cloth, the timing of testimony squeezes away testimony simply by not allowing it to happen. Trial testimony is a slow moving process and two twenty minute bursts severely limit the record as to the losing side’s version of the story.
This tactic is used in any case but appears typically in the domestic violence arena where visitation is being limited by the court. Due process requires a hearing to determine whether a parent is fit to see his child and narrowing and sanitizing the record allows the court to keep the child away indefinitely. This approach can appear in any case involving parents and children.
