Court Presence: Anatomy of a Divorce Trial, Part III • Your Divorce Case
Mastering Courtroom Behavior: Your Guide to Trial Success
In this final installment of our three-part series on divorce trials, Tampa family law attorney Seth Nelson and Pete Wright dive deep into courtroom etiquette, behavior, and psychological preparation. As part of our season-long exploration of Your Divorce Case, this episode provides essential insights into how to present yourself effectively in court and work productively with your attorney during trial.
Seth and Pete break down the discussion into three key segments: mastering courtroom behavior, being an asset to your attorney during trial, and psychological preparation. They explore everything from appropriate facial expressions and dress code to the importance of proper note-taking and communication with your attorney. The conversation also covers critical aspects of post-trial procedures, including motions for rehearing and appeals, while emphasizing the importance of maintaining composure both inside and outside the courtroom.
Questions we answer in this episode:
What are the most common courtroom etiquette mistakes that can hurt your case?
How should you handle emotionally triggering statements during trial?
What's the proper way to communicate with your attorney during proceedings?
Key Takeaways:
Maintain neutral facial expressions and conservative dress in court
Use note-taking to manage emotions and assist your attorney effectively
Stay off social media before, during, and after trial
Whether you're preparing for trial or simply want to understand the court process better, this episode provides invaluable insights into navigating the complexities of divorce court. Seth and Pete's practical advice and real-world examples make this a must-listen for anyone facing divorce proceedings or interested in understanding courtroom dynamics.
Links & Notes
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Pete Wright:
Welcome to How to Split a Toaster, a Divorce Podcast about saving your relationships from TruStory FM. If in court you should loudly protest or show up like you're off to a fest, the judge unimpressed will make you regret your choice to dress like a train wreck.
Seth Nelson:
Welcome to the show everybody. I'm Seth Nelson. As always, I'm here with my good friend Pete Wright. Today we're going back to court to talk about etiquette and anything else Pete wants to throw my way.
Pete Wright:
I do. This is a third in a mini series of topics on what it is to be in court. And we've talked about the anatomy of the courtroom, we've talked about your role there. We've talked about navigating the proceedings, and today we're talking about courtroom behavior. And I have broken my ideal conversation on behavior up into three, count them, three segments. And segment one, I would like to introduce mastering courtroom behavior. Seth Nelson, what are the most common courtroom etiquette mistakes that clients make without realizing it?
Seth Nelson:
Facial expressions.
Pete Wright:
Facial expressions. How so?
Seth Nelson:
The judge sees everything in a courtroom and is taking it all in. Now remember ... And we've had Judge Tibbals on the show. He said, "Look, there's a lot of stuff going on in the courtroom. I'm listening, I'm writing. I might be reading the memo of law or looking at evidence. There's a lot happening and I'm evaluating the witness, but I'm also evaluating every party that is in the courtroom. Monitoring the lawyer's behavior, monitoring the party's behaviors." And when I talk about facial expressions, that applies to lawyers too. And I've had more than one judge look down at me and say, "Mr. Nelson, I can tell by your facial expression ..." And then they ... In one of them, I remember they said, "Mr. Nelson," after they made the ruling, "I can tell by your facial expression, if you were the court, you would've decided this differently." And I said, "Your Honor, my facial expressions have been getting me in trouble from across the kitchen table with my mother for as long as I can remember." And she was very kind and she goes, "My mother still scolds me on my handwriting." But you have to watch it. You have to be cognizant of what your face is doing.
It is amazing to me, how much communication happens without a sound. If you want to test that theory, watch a TV show. You can leave the sound on, but watch a TV show and look at how much happens without sound. There is a lot of parts of that show or that movie that there's no sound. There might be music in the background, but you're watching someone leave a building, get in and out of an Uber, whatever the case may be. Check it out and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Pete Wright:
Do you find or have you ever found an experience where a client's courtroom demeanor significantly changed the outcome of a case?
Seth Nelson:
I would say it significantly, and not just my client, anybody. Significantly impacts the case. Absolutely. Because when they're on the stand and they're not answering question and the judge instructs them to answer the question. When they're on the stand and their behavior shows that they're just lying in credibility. I've had judges look at a party and say, "I haven't prejudged this case, but as I go along, I'm judging credibility and I don't find you credible to this point. I might change my mind." They do that so they don't get recused. They haven't decided yet. And it's a true statement. But yeah, no, it impacts it. Or if you bang the table, if you blurt out. And I think we talked about on the show last time, if they're making the argument that you have anger management issues and you blurt shit out in court, you're proving their case for them.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. Well, and that's my next question, which is how do you handle emotionally triggering statements that are made about you towards you in court? Because if you can't move your face ...
Seth Nelson:
You practice. Go ahead. You can't move your face. What do you do? This is what we do with our clients. I bring them the good old-fashioned yellow pad that you see in all the legal dramas.
Pete Wright:
I know it well.
Seth Nelson:
I have them flip over a few pages and then give them a pen. And I said, "I don't care what you write on that. You can doodle, you can draw, you can write things, but you write calmly and you write slowly and there's no exclamation points. And then when we're done and we're taking a break, you cap your pen and you turn the few pages that we've turned over to start over so no one can see it. And I want you, the client, to listen to the testimony and if you think anything's good, keep your head down. Write. Write. Write." That gives them something to do.
Pete Wright:
And it hides their face.
Seth Nelson:
Yep. Yep. And if you get emotional, I literally will tell people, I want you to do math problems. Two plus two equals four, four plus four equals eight. Write it out. Think about it. Do a series, write it down, and they look at me like I'm crazy. But when you're doing math, it turns off the emotional part of your brain and turns on the analytical part. And I will give clients this trick and then we practice. And I will pretend I'm opposing counsel and I will get an associate or a paralegal, and we already have taken the deposition. I might have them read the other party's deposition about all the bad stuff they say. And we'll practice and you're sitting there because I want to desensitize you to it. They're just words. Doesn't mean that they're true and don't help them make them come true.
Pete Wright:
Let's talk about judicial hot buttons. Are the things that you notice that are of particular note buttons that trigger judges to behave in a certain way or to respond negatively that you should be aware of beyond the facial expression?
Seth Nelson:
No outburst. No grunts. No humming and hawing.
Pete Wright:
Sighs.
Seth Nelson:
Yes. None of that. No shaking of the head every time they're answering. When you're on the stand, answer the question. Don't interrupt. Do not interrupt. I will be a zealot advocate for my client in court. I will argue with the judge in a respectful manner. I will yes, Your Honor, no, Your Honor. In court, just the other day, opposing counsel was going through their examination of the witness and said, "Your Honor, if I could just have a minute to review my notes before I release the witness." Typical. She's reviewing her notes and it was quiet for a while. And I said, "Your Honor, while she's reviewing her notes, I don't mean to interrupt her questioning, but she's taking a break. Just a point of order, I know that the court had a hard stop at a certain time. I'm just checking in how we are on that time." And the court goes, "Thank you. We have 20 minutes. I can push it to 30, but then we're done."
But I don't just say in the middle of that, "Hey, judge, what time you got to stop today?" I'm really like, "Hey, can I speak here? Because it's not my turn to speak." And in our courtrooms with judges that you're in front of all the time, they know how to handle it. They might say, "Mr. Nelson will deal with that after questioning." Okay. You just move on. Right. But answer the question. No blurting out anything. Dress appropriately, especially for Zoom Court. You have to pretend you're walking in that courtroom.
Pete Wright:
What is appropriate? What is appropriate?
Seth Nelson:
If you are a guy, I am going to tell you in our courtrooms, and check your local jurisdiction, at least collared button-down shirt and a coat.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
I would prefer a tie. Conservative. You are dressing conservative. Nothing flashy. I don't want to see jewelry hanging out. I don't want to see rings. I don't want to see tattoos. I want you to be boring.
Pete Wright:
Don't stand out. Got it.
Seth Nelson:
That's it.
Pete Wright:
Because I expect a Florida court is just golf shirts.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. And Bahama shorts.
Pete Wright:
Bahama shorts.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. No. That's not how it works. Then for ladies, very conservative. Dress professionally. Business casual or higher. You can be in a dress, you can be in a suit, you can be in a blouse, a skirt. But conservative, conservative, conservative.
Pete Wright:
I know this is a hard question, but do you find from court to court there are different expectations of hygiene and dress?
Seth Nelson:
I think the expectations are the same. At least I set them the same. Whether a court calls people out or not might be a different story. But we're going to exceed those expectations or at least meet them and be boring.
Pete Wright:
Okay. I would like to transition now to segment two, Seth, two of our three segments. How to be an asset to your attorney during trial.
Seth Nelson:
Brilliant. Brilliant category.
Pete Wright:
How do you expect your or how do you coach your clients to support you in real time during the trial? What does that look like? What does your engagement look like with your client?
Seth Nelson:
They're taking notes. If they have something that they want to share with me, they're going to write it down on that pad of paper I told you about earlier and be quiet. I will check with them before I release the witness. So be quiet. Write it down.
Pete Wright:
And this is the equivalent of what you just said. She took a break to check her notes. That's what you're doing.
Seth Nelson:
That's what I'll do. Your Honor, if I ... And depending on the time I might say, "Your Honor, can I just have a moment to confer with my notes and confer with my client?" Judge is going to give it to us. And it might be that it is 11:00 or 10:45. We've been going since nine, so we're there almost an hour and a half, two hours in that range. Your Honor, may we take a five-minute comfort break. Which is, hey, everyone's got to go to a bathroom. And in that time I'm going to have my client bring his notes out with him or her and be like, "Okay. Let's review our notes quickly. What do you have? Anything I missed? Anything you think?" Now remember, these are lawyer decisions, not client decisions. When the client says, "She lied and I want you to hit her on ..." Nope. I hear what you're saying. I might ask a follow-up, I might not. I might leave it. That's a trial strategy. That's a lawyer decision. But the point is to help your lawyer, you write it down and you're quiet.
What is not helpful is whispering in my ear. That is distracting and the court sees it, and now the court is looking at me like you don't have any client control. Who's running this show Mr. Nelson? And that's especially true when the other side is asking questions. Because when the other side is asking a question, it's my opportunity to listen to that question and determine whether there's a legal objection. And when you're whispering in my left ear and I'm listening to the question in my right ear, I might miss a legal objection, which means something might come into evidence that we didn't want in or was inappropriate to come in, and that might be that piece of the puzzle that changes the picture.
Pete Wright:
Okay. Whispers have weight.
Seth Nelson:
They're very distracting. And by the way, the judge can hear it.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. It just seems to me like everybody can hear it. Right. It seems like whispers give it away to opposing counsel too.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
You're not that far away from them in a courtroom.
Seth Nelson:
Nope. Nope. Not at all.
Pete Wright:
Speaking specifically of Zoom court, you're with your client when you're on Zoom Court, you bring them into the office.
Seth Nelson:
I prefer that, but not always.
Pete Wright:
Not always. So do you keep a chat room open?
Seth Nelson:
No.
Pete Wright:
Is there some sort of communication open?
Seth Nelson:
No. What we'll do is we might text each other on our phones because I'm not trusting that chat room. Because if the judge sees what my client just wrote to me, we could have problems.
Pete Wright:
That could be problematic. Okay. How about this. Segment three, segment the third, strategy and psychological preparation for trial. Now, we've talked about this before. But I just want to review as we wrap up this series on the trial experience. Now you're in trial, so what are the things you should be thinking about in terms of your mental emotional preparation, your stamina, and how you are communicating with others? Social media, you're going to have people reaching out to you, making sure you're okay. How do you keep your wits about you when you're in the throes of a trial experience?
Seth Nelson:
Everything you say to a anyone makes them a potential witness so try not to talk about it. This is going to sound so basic and so difficult. Get a good night's sleep. It's going to be so hard to sleep. Get up and eat what you normally do. Make sure that you eat at lunch, and if we have a break, a snack and bring some water. All these basic things. Focus on your breathing. All of this stuff helps. All of it helps. Understand that you're not going to understand everything said in the courtroom because lawyers speak a foreign language. So when you hear something that you don't understand, write down your question at the break. Ask your lawyer, "I have some questions. Is this a good time?" Or I have some points to ... I might not have time. I might have to use the restroom. Judge said, "We're taking a five-minute break and Mr. Nelson, that is not a lawyer five minutes, that's a real five minutes. It's not the last two minutes of the Super Bowl either. It's five minutes. Get back here. We got to get this done today." So I'm going to go to the restroom. I'm going to look at my own notes and I'm going to focus on my notes before I focus on yours because I'm ultimately responsible.
But taking care of yourself physically helps take care of yourself mentally. Make sure if you have children or pets at home that you've made arrangements for them to be picked up from school or someone to walk the dog. Because if that court room, if we're going long and that judge goes, we're here until we finish tonight and it's 5:00 and the judge is like, "We're still going. Let's go, Mr. Nelson. How many more witnesses? We're getting it done. You guys said one day, we were here from nine and it's five and we got two more witnesses. We're staying as long as we're staying, but we're getting it done."
Pete Wright:
That happens.
Seth Nelson:
You're not going anywhere. And I don't like to be the one to say, "Your Honor, can I make a call about walking my dog?" No. No. Have it done.
Pete Wright:
Your dog's going to tear the shit out of your house. That's fine. The judge doesn't care.
Seth Nelson:
That's right. Judges care about dogs. Let me be very clear, Andy. Andy, make sure highlight this.
Pete Wright:
Put a dog barking in the background to show how much you love dog. One of the things that I think can be jarring to your emotional experience in court, I have to imagine is the courthouse encounter. You're walking down the hall and you see your ex spouse or spouse's family and you are thrust into an unintentional confrontation. Do you coach your clients on that?
Seth Nelson:
First off, we go to the courthouse, you go through security. You don't say anything to anybody. You see them, you just walk right by. No confrontation. Because let me tell you, the security, the bailiffs, the sheriff's officers, they're there and when there's a confrontation ... And I've had to call them. I would just say, "Officer, you think they're just sitting around. Let me tell you, they're watching and they're fast. They'll get there." And guess what? When you're yelling and screaming, the judge can hear it. If the judge is in the courtroom, they're going to hear it. So no. No one's going to impact you. You're going to practice everything we talked about, breathing, focus on you. It doesn't matter that they're there. They're not going to be allowed in the courtroom unless they're a witness. I'm going to do what's called invoke the rule where any witnesses have to stay outside until they're called.
Pete Wright:
Okay. That I imagine is a thing that people could get nervous about. Do you have people concerned about that court is not necessarily a safe place.
Seth Nelson:
They're concerned that it's public.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Seth Nelson:
Literally be like, "Really? Anyone can come in?" I've said anyone in the public. We have an open society. Yeah. Rarely does anyone come in to sit for a divorce trial.
Pete Wright:
Right. Do you have any divorce like fans who just like to watch the process at work?
Seth Nelson:
Just show up. Yeah. They do the wave in the back of the courtroom.
Pete Wright:
There's a giant foam finger. It's not the finger you think though.
Seth Nelson:
I will share this with you. We have a very talented associate attorney that's been practicing a couple of years. Bri Pearson. And I happened to take Bri and her husband to a Tampa Bay Lightning game, go bolts. The hockey team here. And they were doing the announcements. Now starting ... And Bri goes, wouldn't that be awesome is if you walk into court they would have a walk-up song and representing the husband, first chair Seth Nelson. That'd be fun. Just one time. Just one time.
Pete Wright:
Just one time. Get a dozen people in there with Vuvuzelas just to get a big horn going to celebrate a good win.
Seth Nelson:
Exactly.
Pete Wright:
I'm down.
Seth Nelson:
When you have that winning cross examination, they just yell goal that goes on forever. Anyways, I don't think any of that's ever going to happen.
Pete Wright:
Well, we've talked about a lot over the last three episodes. We've talked about the entire arc of the case. Where do you feel like we've gone light? Any final thoughts that you feel like we should hit?
Seth Nelson:
You mentioned a question I didn't answer it fully was the social media.
Pete Wright:
Oh, sure.
Seth Nelson:
Stay off of it. Stay off of it. Because let me tell you, there's something called a motion to reopen the evidence. Judge rules in your favor. You get on social, really pulled one over on that judge.
Pete Wright:
Judge finds out.
Seth Nelson:
Because we see it. Motion to reopen the evidence judge. And the standard is the ... And I might not have this technically right. I would always go double check the rule on this, but is there evidence that I did not have at the time of trial nor could I get that I could find? Well, I can't find the fact that after trial and you announce your ruling in favor of the opposing side, that they say, "I really pulled one over on that judge on social." Right?
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. This has happened. Not in one of my cases. This has happened.
Pete Wright:
Because right now what we're talking about, not just during the trial, after the trial. Keep your mouth shut. Your social media mouth shut.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. And all you do is you say exactly what the lawyers say when they walk out after winning or losing. When they win, they go, we really appreciate the court's time and coming to the sound decision. The other side goes, we really appreciate the court's time and even judges make mistakes and we believe that there was some mistakes in errors in law, which is complicated, and therefore we'll be taking this up on appeal. But you're still deferential, right?
Pete Wright:
Sure.
Seth Nelson:
So really after trial, talk to your lawyer, make sure you get with your lawyer on are there any post-trial motions that you might want to bring and what are those timeframes? Because you miss them, they're waived, you're barred, you're done.
Pete Wright:
Well, I'm glad you brought that up post-trial. That's our question. We've got a question right now. What do we need to do post-trial? The show's over. What do you do now? Is there more paperwork that you have to do or is it all pretty straightforward?
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. I'm sorry for this lawyerly answer. It depends. Trial's over. If the judge says at the end of trial, I'm going to take it under advisement, which means they're going to think about it. There's a lot of evidence to consider. It's been two days. They've got their thoughts, they have their notes, but they want to compile it before they make their ruling. And they could say, "I'm going to schedule a ruling hearing in a week and get out your calendars, counsel." And we get out our calendars and they say, "Next Tuesday, 3:00, Zoom. I'm just telling you what I'm ruling. That's that. There will be no legal argument. This case is over. Evidence has been submitted. Closing arguments have concluded. I'm just telling you what I'm going to tell you." The judge at that could say, "Here's what it is. You want to hear Mr. Nelson draft the proposed final judgment as I just dictated to you. Show it to counsel, submit it to me. I'll make my revisions if necessary."
The judge could say, "I'm ruling right now." Oh, done. Judge might say, "I'm ruling right now and I'll prepare the final judgment. So there's no more work for the lawyers to do until they get that." The judge might say, "Prepare proposed final judgments. So I want you to write it as if you're me on what you think the evidence showed and why your side should win." And that could be a lot of work. Because you have a two and a half day trial and you want to cite to the record the transcript, the evidence that was submitted and tie it all together with the case law and the statute and the weighing of the factors. That's a lot of work. The financials. Now, once the final judgment is signed, that's when the clock starts ticking on motions for rehearing. Judge, I think you made a mistake. Notice of appeal. Do you have to do a motion for rehearing before you do a notice of appeal or do you waive your notice, your right to appeal?
Pete Wright:
I need you to tell me what the difference is between those things. Motion of rehearing.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. We have a whole hearing and we say, "Judge, we want you to hear it again because you made a mistake."
Pete Wright:
The whole thing.
Seth Nelson:
The whole thing. The whole thing.
Pete Wright:
That sounds awful.
Seth Nelson:
They're usually summarily denied. Okay.
Pete Wright:
Because no thanks. I saw Groundhog Day, it was great.
Seth Nelson:
Exactly. But then a notice of appeal is telling the trial court, I think you made a mistake, and therefore I'm going to go talk to the appellate court as we had Judge Lucas on the appellate court. And we're going to have Ceci Berman on who's an appellate attorney to talk about appellate law coming up. But yeah, so we'll talk about what you have to do post trail. And we will put this as a teaser. Some things we're talking about trial, which would be a final order, but there's some decisions throughout the case. And the question is it a final order or a non-final order? And depending on that answer depends on whether you can appeal or not.
Pete Wright:
What I expected you to tell me when I asked that question is just tell me when we're done, man. And you haven't done that at all. Does it ever end? It depends.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. Way to say it. So then after your time of notice of appeal is over, if no one appeals, it's over. Okay. But it's family law. If it's kid issues, you can always do a supplemental petition to modify if something has been a material substantial change in circumstances.
Pete Wright:
You mentioned that the time the clock starts ticking after the ... What is the clock?
Seth Nelson:
The timeframe for when you file your notice of appeal, and I'll double check the rules. We'll talk more about that with CeCi.
Pete Wright:
Oh, okay. All right. We've got a rule check. That's fine. Okay, man. Now know how to go try a case in Florida law. I feel pretty good about that.
Seth Nelson:
Okay, so we're going to test you then.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Andy is on the stand. I am taking direct testimony from Andy. You are the opposing counsel and I am going to ask a question and you're going to see if you have an objection.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Here it goes. So I'm asking Andy this question, isn't it true that-
Pete Wright:
Objection. Leading the witness.
Seth Nelson:
Very good. Very good. Isn't it true ... It's leading.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Seth Nelson:
You got it. A plus. Here we go. You really can't say it's so excitedly though.
Pete Wright:
I think I would be giddy if I were in your shoes in court.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. Here's another one. What did the teacher say about your child's performance. What did the teacher say?
Pete Wright:
Objection, hearsay.
Seth Nelson:
Very good. It's a non-party. What did they say. Objection, hearsay. Okay. Very good. Very good. What's your name?
Pete Wright:
Am I supposed to object to that or I answering it?
Seth Nelson:
No. No. No. I'm asking Andy, he's on the stand. I say, "What's your name?"
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I don't have an objection to what's your name?
Seth Nelson:
Thank God. Good job. Okay. Pete, that is three for three. We're going to leave it there.
Pete Wright:
Oh man. Yeah, please, no more questions. Let me end on a high note.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah, exactly. I'll tell you. The high note was what's your name, no objection. Okay. The first two were solid.
Pete Wright:
I was worried that a question might include subsection A, stroke 192, and I was going to fail hard.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Well, it could have been. This is a hard one that people miss is sometimes people will say, "What time did you pick them up, 4:00 or 5:00?"
Pete Wright:
Okay. I think that's an objection because it's leading.
Seth Nelson:
Well, it could be leading because you're putting the answer in, or it could be compound. Four or five. So it's like convoluted.
Pete Wright:
Is that the objection, objection, compound?
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. If they ever put the word and in there or on direct on cross, you got to be a little more ... It can be a little leading. It can be leading. It depends on how they ask it. But sometimes it'll be this whole convoluted question because lawyers a lot of time they're humans and they'll ask questions the way they talk. They'll do this whole lead-in. They'll say, "Well, you heard the opening statement of opposing counsel who said X, Y, and Z." And then they go on a little more. And I'll just be like, "Objection. Counsel's testifying. They're just telling a story. Where's the question?" Or they'll just say something that is just, "Well, how's your health?" "Objection. Vague. What timeframe? Are we talking about as a child? Are we talking about now?" So getting timeframes is really important, and that's why it's annoying to listen to lawyers ask questions, ask a question from the date of filing the petition dissolution of marriage, which was March 4th, 2025 to the present, have you had any physical health issues?
Pete Wright:
I'm stopping to think, but that seems like an okay question. It is, because it's very specific.
Seth Nelson:
Right. And it's a have you ever had any. It's not, didn't you have migraines?
Pete Wright:
Give us the scope of your health condition in a certain period.
Seth Nelson:
That's right. That's right. And then they say, "Well, I had migraines." "And in that same timeframe, did you have any other issues? What if any other issues did you have?" And then you go down, down the list. And then any others? Now that's a shorthand.
Pete Wright:
Because you've already established the context of the question.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. And look, they're not going to object, so it's in. If they object, "Judge, vague. Any others?" "All right, judge, my mistake."
Pete Wright:
Sustained. Overruled.
Seth Nelson:
No. No. No. No. Sustained.
Pete Wright:
Sustained was right.
Seth Nelson:
If they agree with the objection. But some of these, they just flow and you do it. But the point is ... And this is one last point about trial. Don't get freaked out if your lawyer's objections are constantly overruled. You don't know what that means. I've had it where judges let everything in, they just ignore my objections. And I am telling you, they're sound legal objections. Maybe not everyone. Maybe there was some close calls or this or that. The reason they're doing that, they don't really care what the answer is. They're not going to give it much weight. And instead of having go on forever ... Or maybe the lawyer on the other side just ask bad questions. And the judge is like, "I want to get this trial done. I'm letting it in. Let's go." It's not a proper legal reason to do so, but if they're not going to give it the weight, what do I care if it's in or not? And now when they rule in my favor, the other side doesn't get the argument. Judge made a mistake by not letting that evidence in.
Pete Wright:
Right.
Seth Nelson:
There's a lot happening.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. There's a lot happening. And I feel like so many of these questions that come up are going to be questions that are addressing the silent trial that's going on in the judge's head that you don't get to know about until it's over.
Seth Nelson:
It's always, always beneficial when a judge asks you a question. You get to know what they're thinking and you get to address it. It's even better.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. Right. So useful. I hope this little trio of episodes is helpful to folks. Send us those questions. We love getting more questions and we'll knock them out. And our Q&A episode is coming up in a couple of weeks and we'll get those on the list. Howtosplitatoaster.com, look for the button that says, send us a question. It's right there at the top. Push that button, comes right to us. Mainlining questions right into Seth's name. On that note, I think we're done. I think we've fixed trial and we're excited for you all to get out of it as quickly as you can if you're facing your divorce. Thank you so much for downloading and listening to this show. We appreciate your time and attention. On behalf of Seth, it depends Nelson, America's favorite divorce attorney, I'm Pete Wright, and we'll see you next time right here on How To Split a Toaster: A Divorce Podcast about Saving Your Relationships.
Outro:
How to Split A Toaster is part of the TruStory FM podcast Network, produced by Andy Nelson, Music, by T. Bless & The Professionals and DB Studios. Seth Nelson is an attorney with NLG Divorce & Family Law with offices in Tampa, Florida. While we may be discussing family law topics, How to Split a Toaster is not intended to, nor is it providing legal advice. Every situation is different. If you have specific questions regarding your situation, please seek your own legal counsel with an attorney licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. Pete Wright is not an attorney or employee of NLG Divorce & Family Law. Seth Nelson is licensed to practice law in Florida.
