Opinion ID: 1615498
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Professional Behavior

Text: Judges, lawyers, and observers have for a number of years increasingly decried the incivility between lawyers themselves and towards parties and witnesses in judicial proceedings. The use of vituperative language, if not acceptable, has become too tolerated. In trial, counsel sometimes seem to believe that zealous advocacy permits, if not demands, that opponents be personally derided and that cases should be decided by appeals to prejudice, fear, envy, and bias, regardless of whether those emotions have anything to do with the facts and law of the case. Rhetoric is too often substituted for logic and reason. Although every witness, party, opposing counsel, and other participant in a trial is a victim and injured by such conduct, the ultimate victim is our system of justice itself. Respect for the rule of law and our system of administering it depend upon public trust and confidence, whether it is in civil or criminal cases. Historically fundamental to that system has been the concept that individuals and corporations are tried (civilly or criminally) for their acts and not for simply who they are (or are alleged to be). It is tragic that the common observation of laymen is that it is just lawyers being lawyers. Although courts cannot provide the sole solution, when one asks what courts have done to stem this behavior, the answer too often is precious little. Judges and lawyers and sometimes both decry this behavior and urge some answer. Judges criticize lawyers for their behavior. Lawyers criticize judges for tolerating it or for not taking firm actions to stop it. Appellate courts frequently play their role as well by finding no abuse of discretion or no prejudice, [3] or by describing as a tactical decision defense counsel's failure to object, without admitting that counsel may not be willing to object where there is little chance of it being sustained or of any meaningful relief being granted on appeal. All who participate in the trial of a case are reminded, just as the prosecutor is reminded by the comment to Rule 4-3.8, that juries are to decide cases on the evidence presented-not appeals to unreasoned emotion or name-calling.