Cutting The Chaff

I was doing research at a Court House and over time became attracted by certain ’styles’  and a recognition of certain truths; which are somewhat amusing in a general sense. 

In the company of a experienced attorney I was able to gain insights which go beyond the Court room.

The first category are those who haven’t a clue what they are doing.  Some had recently graduated Law School, so had their ‘excuse‘, (which doesn’t excuse their incompetance) while others had been incompetent for decades.

The second were those who were a bit too elaborate as if saying a great many words which meant nothing would impress the judge. 

The third group were those who fought losing battles; well paid for someone that needed to be removed from interaction with the public, they valiantly strove to do all they could knowing they weren’t going to ‘win’.

The fourth group which most intrigued me were the few ‘under-impressive’ who spoke the least yet were successful in almost all their matters.

You’ve all seen Court rooms on television, you’ve all heard the brilliant speeches and seen the dramatic presentations, so the under-impressive lawyer is ignored when you see him/her in real life.  Yet, keeping a record, I found that those I had virtually ignored had the highest number of ‘wins’.

I began to focus on these persons who seemed almost ‘invisible’ and whose questions, addresses to the court, were brief and without elaboration.

In one case, the unimpressive asked very few questions while the other side asked many, and at the address, the unimpressive quoted the law without any other reference save to apply the law to the facts of the case.

The other side went on through every bit of evidence, quoted numerous cases, yet; lost.

This provoked a deeper recognition of human interaction.   Those who know what they are doing, saying, who are competent or expert in their field, are able to cut the chaff quickly and go directly to the facts.  Those who don’t know or are incompetent or not all that fey with the facts tend to get distracted and make up for their lack of focus by inserting irrelevancies.