What is the Judge Like? - is the Wrong Question.

Clients often ask me this question once a date has been set for their appeal hearing. This is usually approximately 2 years after they were first denied. Is the Judge nice? What are they like? Is it good for my case that we got this judge? Is the Judge fair? Will the Judge feel sorry for me? And so on. My response is that in almost all cases the judges are polite and treat the attorneys and their clients with respect. They don't show much emotion in their tone, word choice, volume or body language so as to appear as professional as possible. You may see an occasional facial movement or sigh or long pause but that is about it. They are not suppose to come across as annoyed or angry for any reason though this sometime briefly happens. So I guess you could say they're nice.

Here though is why this is the wrong question to ask. The real question that people should ask and two years or more before their hearing is this. What is My Attorney Like?

Because how the judge acts and treats clients and attorneys to a significant degree has to do with how well your attorney has prepared your case. This includes getting to know the client very well, researching nuanced areas of the law as well as knowing all the basics, and knowing how and what type of medical record to build. The better your attorney means the nicer the judge but more importantly the better your chance of winning your case. What I strive to bring to every case and client is knowledge, commitment, and integrity. Judges at the end of the day, at least most of them, want to bring the same things to their courtroom. The better all sides do this the better for the client, the attorneys and the judges. So ask What is My Attorney Like?