Your friendly neighbourhood guide to not being yelled at by a judge
So your professor asked you to visit court for a 10-percent assignment. Easy enough, except most 1L students have entered a courtroom a whopping zero times. If you were like me, the court visit sparks more panic than the course itself. You become consumed with one thought—how much can I mess up before I get a lifetime ban from a judge?
Have no fear. Welcome to your friendly neighbourhood guide to not being yelled from the bench. Follow these simple rules on courtroom etiquette, and avoid the opprobrium of judges, clerks, and counsel alike.
Do:
Wear formal and business clothing. There is technically no dress code, and I have yet to see a police officer escort anyone out of court for casual wardrobe (and I once saw a man in a hand-cut tube top with a less-than-tasteful amount of nipple exposure). But do you really want to be the only person there in sweats?
Bow when court is already in session. Whether it’s a civil or court proceeding, it is respectful to bow by the entrance of the courtroom immediately after entering, before quietly taking a seat in the body of the court. Emphasis on ‘quietly’.
Attend court in the morning. To catch motions, pre-trial proceedings, and exciting cases, be prepared to catch the early worm. Court starts at 10am. Motions for cases are often dealt with first. Self-represented accused and claimants often speak to matters later in the day, and they often do not make motions.
Check the daily court lists. Each court publishes a list of the daily cases that will be on the docket. The list includes the courtroom number and what the status of the case is. This is the quickest way to separate the trials from simple set-date appearances. Even better, it saves you the time and energy of entering and re-entering courtrooms.
Do not:
Mix up Judges and Justices of the Peace. Judges wear red sashes, and Justices of the Peace (JPs) wear green sashes. You refer to judges as “Your Honour” and JPs as “Your Worship”. Remember—red for the blood that will splash if you ever accidentally call a judge “Your Worship”. If you ever come across the rare moment when a sash is missing, I will pray for you.
Bring coffee or tea into a courtroom. Having been a repeat offender of this, I can personally assure you that the court clerk will publicly call you out and tell you to leave the courtroom.
Pass the bar. Relax. I don’t mean your bar exam. In courtrooms, there is usually a physical wooden bar that divides the body of the court and the benches where counsel sit as they wait to speak to the Court. One day, you will pass the bar, and then actually get to pass the bar too. But for now, you only get to sit in the body of the court.
Leave the courtroom without bowing. Like when you walk in, you must respectfully walk out. Of course, no one will chase after you to shake their fist at you, but you will leave with the shame that you turned your back on the court.
Leave the volume on your phone on. The court clerk will not ask you to leave, but they may passive-aggressively remind the body of the court to turn off all cell phones. Don’t be cellphone Sally.
Talk loudly in court. Need I say more?
And there you have it. You can now run around in courthouses with full confidence that you know what you are semi-doing.
*Editor’s Note: Kristy Wong is a full-time student at the Downtown Legal Services Criminal Law Division. She goes to court about twice a week.
