Whilst it may seem obvious, Judges are human. They work, go home, have friends and family, and have problems like us. Judges have good and bad days at work. Imagine stepping into the Judges shoes...it may give you a little different perspective about your case...
Judges Shoes
A Judge in the Family Court, lets' say a District Judge, is in Chambers/Court Room from 10 am to 4 pm, often with an hour's lunch. Let's say this day he has 1/2 hourly direction appointments throughout the day which means he will have at least 10 direction hearings in a day. This is not taking into account any urgent without notice hearings that may be added to a Judge's list or any other back to back hearings listed.
So what do you think a Judge knows about your case before you go into a direction's hearing? Often not much, he may have had a few minutes to quickly glance at the last order, checked over an application, if a previous hearing, whether directions have been complied with, but he will not really know your case in any detail.
He does not have time, so what do you think the Judge looks at to help him. A position statement and if faced with a Position statement that is pages and pages of written text containing irrelevant information from one party and a position statement from another party which is short, clear, relevant, sets out the position and what they want, whose do you think he will favour? It's human nature, it may not seem fair, but a judge is human, he is not going to go through a lengthy irrelevant position statement to look for relevance. He will favour what makes his life easier and that can often be the starting point to go into court.
So how do you win a over a Judge
A simple step is to make the Judge's job easier, and one way to do this is to prepare your court documents in a way that will keep the Judge's attention, giving him an overview of your case and what you want in a way that allows him to support your position. In Child Arrangement Order cases. A #Position Statement that is clear, concise, short and relevant.
You can download a Position Statement Bundle here including a sample template for a Position Statement and some clear examples. Download them here
In Financial Cases, for the first hearing a #Case Summary with #Statement of Issues which is clear, concise, short and relevant, a #Schedule of Assets that shows in one place all the relevant assets and values. Everything is handpicked and drawn from the Form E's, questionnaires so it makes the Judge's job easier. He has all the information to support your position in one place all drawn out from the lengthy documentation. Imagine reading two Form E's, two Statement of Issues, two chronologies, and two questionnaires. How much information would be retained? What about second hearing the Financial Dispute Resolution, when your offers, replies to questionnaires as well as all the document's filed before are before the Judge for the hearing, it is even more imperative that the Judge has an accurate idea of the position.
Inform him and help him out, prepare your case and your documentation. You can download a basic FDA Financial Document Bundle here which includes a Case Summary with Statement of Issues Template, a Chronology Template, a Template Schedule of Assets. For a more comprehensive FDA Financial Bundle which includes everything in the basic bundle together with examples used for Court of a Case Summary and Statement of Issues, an example Chronology, an example Schedule of Assets both in Word and Excel Formats and a Template Questionnaire and an example used for a court hearing. Download everything you need to help you prepare for your FDA Hearing here