ARGUMENT BEFORE THE APPELLATE COURT

It was bound to happen eventually! After all my conversation regarding my appeal, I finally ended up before the appellate court arguing my case.  How was it, you want to ask? It was awful, it was gut wrenching, it was exhiliarating, it was unbelieavable--all of those things. 

To be honest, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it.  I did everything I could think of to avoid the awful moment, delaying assignment to the calendar with various excuses, pretending to myself I couldn't remember it was upcoming on the agenda--all sorts of things. 

Finally, the bad day came, however, when I received notification from court of the day and time of my hearing.  I have to say the appellate court clerks are really fair about assigning you your hearing date.  They send a letter to both parties well in advance asking you to let them know what dates may not work out for you. Once they have a day, they send you a little yellow booklet in the mail listing when you are supposed to appear. 

Again, I was in an avoidance pattern so I waited until a few days before my hearing to do what you really have to do, which is, visit the appellate court well in advance. If you are smart, you do that for several days so that you can get an understanding of how it works. 

The appellate courthouse is located at 75 Elm Street in Hartford.  This means that you get off at Capitol Avenue, turn left, drive towards the Bushnell Center, turn left on Trinity and a quick right onto Elm Street.  If you pass the Bushnell Center, you've missed your road.  Parking is a bit problematic, but not impossible.  

75 Elm Street is a small building with a modest exterior and a rather 1920s faded splendor on the interior.  Security is right there when you walk in.  There is a waiting room for attorneys and self represented parties on the left.  You walk through two heavily sealed doors to enter the courtroom itself.  The ceiling of the room is extremely high with lengthy draperies surrounding each window.  The judges sit at a desk shaped like a horseshoe.  In front of the horseshoe, there are two desks and two podiums placed at a respectful distance away.  That is where the attorneys and self represented parties stand up to argue their cases. 

Behind them is a horseshoe of chairs placed there for the litigants and for any other attorneys to sit.  I did ask if some friends of mine unrelated to the case could sit there and just give me moral support, but I was told no, they had to sit in the rows of chairs made available to members of the audience behind the second horseshoe for parties and additional attorneys. 

If you can envision it, there was direct access for parties and their attorneys straight ahead through the sealed doors, but there were also two doors to the left and right leading to ailes which the clerks could use in order to speak to the judges or hand papers to them if necessary. 

The appellate court takes a big break in the middle of the day so you have from 10:00am to 12:00pm and then from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. 

Ironically, the first case I listened to when I came in to observe was one in which an obvious abuser was arguing his case.  Apparently, he had been obstructing in his case in trial court and in appellate court for quite some time with various objections and appeals and he had also spent a couple of years in jail for failure to pay child support as well as other wrongdoing, even though he was clearly wealthy enough to actually not be a schmuck. 

I found it amusing that when the opposing attorney pointed out this guy's wrong doing, he responded with "You can't judge me on the basis of my checkered past!  Fair is fair."  I'm like, to myself, "Oh no!  You can't! You'd be surprised."  Still, I took the phrase down just in case my past comes up. 

I was the only person sitting in the audience that day, and my guess is that is pretty much the case all the time.  Despite the plethora of seating available to people in the appellate court, very few people actually come to see what is going on.  This means that decisions of tremendous magnitude that will affect the well being of so many people once they are made take place in a sleepy, out of the way place that no one ever visits.  The irony in that is quite striking.

Another one of the cases I found interesting was an appeal from a murderer, and a few members of the victim's family came to hear it.  They were dressed in suits and ties, and every once in a while one of them would bite his lip and look down.

I was all over the place preparing for my hearing.  I took a look at my brief and my reply brief.  I looked over the case law one more time.  I tried to take some notes and by the time I was done I put together a four page double spaced statement.

They actually tell you not to do that because you are supposed to look the judges in the eyes and speak directly to them.  The advice I've heard is that you should just put some of your notes on index cards and refer to them if you need to.  I read off my prepared statement, but by then I had it memorized so I didn't need to look down at it that much.  

As the appellant, I had to go first, and I have to admit I was so upset and uncomfortable that I spent several minutes just hemming and hawing, shuffling my papers and shifting notebooks around, but once I got going, my conviction took over and I did just fine. 

In an appeal, each person gets twenty minutes to argue their position and then the appellant gets an additional ten minutes to respond to the appellee, the opposing side.  As the appellant you can choose to use up those ten minutes in your initial statement and choose not to reply to your opponent.  The judge will ask you to let them know how you want to handle your argument up front before you get started.  You pretty much talk until your time is up. There is a small box in front of you which flashes a right light to alert you to the fact that your time is up. 

Once I got started with my argument, I had around ten minutes of speaking from my prepared remarks before the judges started in on questions and completely diverted me from what I had to say.  Then I sat down as the opposing attorney conducted her argument.  

I spent a bit of time with this lawyer and I was very satisfied to follow advice she had given me which I paid good money for two years ago, and I made sure that I focused on writing good notes of what she had said as she spoke.  Then when it was time for my reply, I jumped up and read through my notes and gave pointed responses to her arguments.  Always, and I say, always, observe what the opposing  attorney does and learn from his or her techniques.  It is always beneficial to you in the end.  Again, the judges interupted me with their questions. 

I was satisfied overall that my responses were good.  One of my answers was on the weak side and I felt disappointed when I thought about it later on.  What can I say.  In life you win a few, you lose a few, and hope for the best.

Basically, once you have gone through a trial, written up motions for articulation, motions for rectification, motions for review in the case, and once you have written your brief, and your reply brief, you pretty much have the case by heart.  So the reality is, the best preparation for your argument in appellate court is a good night's sleep, a good breakfast (or lunch depending) and the support of good friends.  Before you know it, you are done and you are walking out the door. After that all you can do is wait for the ruling, which, as I understand it, I will receive by email in a thoroughly modern manner.  If I lose, am I done?  No, not at all. That's what supreme courts are for!