Always schedule time to meet with your client and go through her direct examination before court. Begin by explaining your goals for the direct examination, what issues will be important, and what issues will not. Talk to your client about any tendencies she may have to gloss over details, to appear angry or defensive, or to minimize abuse. Then role play the direct examination, giving the client feedback about anything unclear or confusing, as well as her pacing and demeanor. The role play will help you adjust your direct examination outline as needed before the hearing. Other tips for client preparation:
- Frankly discuss the emotions the hearing might trigger.
- Don’t discourage emotional expression during her testimony.
- Encourage honest emotional responses in the courtroom (except anger, which can be weaponized to suggest she is the aggressor or mutually violent).
- Explain why it is important that your client tell what happened to her.
- Advise her about the importance of tone and body language for credibility, as the court will be watching both of them while they are testifying and even while they are not.
- Make sure your client understands that being “tough” to prove something to her abuser in court can backfire.
- Reconcile all inconsistencies or seemingly illogical facts and behavior in advance of court, by pointing them out and addressing them.
- Ask your client whether she is worried about any issues that might be brought up in court.
- Make sure your client understands your case theme, and what facts and evidence in her case are most compelling and best support her claims. While a lawyer should never manufacture a client’s testimony, it is critical that the lawyer prepare the client to testify about what is important to the judge and to leave out what is unimportant.
- Encourage your client to use language and style that is natural to her (except when it is necessary to slow her down).
- Avoid discussing domestic violence terminology that, if repeated during client testimony, will sound disingenuous and coached (e.g., “He’s obsessed with power and control.”).
- Identify a client’s tendency to be distracted by issues that do not support her “core story” (e.g., the abusive former partner’s infidelity). Talk to her about what the focus should be on in court, and why.
- Identify and address a client’s tendency to “gloss over” details of painful events. Practice doing it differently.
- Identify and address client’s tendency to minimize, deny, or use language that characterizes abuse as mutual.
- Ask the client to make a timeline of abuse that can serve as a reference point for both of you.
- Make sure she understands the process of objections.
- Practice the direct, for both substance and pace, and to ensure that the client can tell her full story.
- Prepare the client for a judge’s questioning style, as some judges use an inappropriate questioning style that may intimidate or traumatize a victim. You do not want your client to be surprised by an untrained or unkind judge’s aggressive style.