Hello everyone. It’s Chris, Pritt back again with a new topic in West Virginia divorce. Today, we’re going to be talking about whether the things that you say and do inside and outside of court can come back to haunt you in court.
Sometimes somebody will come to me and they will talk about how things went wrong in court. They might’ve had an attorney or they might not have had an attorney. When I look into the case, one of the things that I often find is that they have said things that are completely inappropriate to the judge, or things that are inappropriate to say in court. Examples of this would be using disrespectful language to the judge or speaking out loud in court when they’re not supposed to be talking. Those are things that seem to irk the judges.
Often something else that you can do that can hurt your case is when you’re saying things in front of the children that might be construed as inappropriate. Everything you need to be doing when you’re interacting with your soon to be former spouse should be geared around how is something going to look in court? It oftentimes comes back to bite people. Whenever they’re saying things that are going to be considered inappropriate or saying something that could be borderline considered to be a threat. Sometimes people say things that could be taken out of context and it could be considered to be a threat or construed in that way even though the intention wasn’t there. Also, saying things that might tend to alienate a child from the other parent often comes up in court.
Something that you always need to be aware of is what you’re saying to your soon to be former spouse could be recorded. I have seen it come up time and time again, and it’s even worse if you’re texting because texting things that could be considered improper can get you in trouble. Also, one of the things that you always have to take into account in these cases is the fact that if somebody is dishing it out to you, it’s human nature to want to dish it back in many instances. However, that’s not necessarily in your favor because you might have a great case, but at the same time, the court could look at both of you conclude that both of you are terrible people, irresponsible, and so forth. Because of that, the judge might split the difference on some things when in reality, the judge might not have split the difference because the judge might’ve favored your case or your side of things if they hadn’t thought you were saying inappropriate things.
So, just think about things before you speak and think about your case. It’s important you do so. Make sure you don’t say anything disrespectful or inappropriate to your soon to be former spouse or to the judge. Also, don’t say anything inappropriate around the children. This consists of today’s topic. If you have any questions at all, feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.
