Just about every judge on television brings his court to
order by striking the bench with his gavel.
It makes for great television, but in the 20-some courtrooms in which I
have presided, I have never seen a gavel.
Why is that? I like
to joke that the administrators are afraid I’d hurt myself if there were a
hammer on the bench. (I saw a cartoon
once of an angry judge who hit the bench with his gavel, and then pick up the
broken eyeglasses he had hit by mistake!)
It seems to me that the purpose of a gavel is to get the
attention of the people in the courtroom to call them to order. It may also be used if tensions and tempers
rise in a case and it looks like one or more of the participants may get out of
control.
I have found that hitting the bench with my palm has the
same effect. I don’t think I’ve had to
do that more than a half-dozen times in 25 years on the bench. When I have done it, I’m sure the people in
the courtroom thought I was quite angry.
Actually, I was not. It was a
purposeful performance to regain control over the courtroom.
I recall a family
court matter where both sides were pro se
– no lawyers were present. The man
became more and more agitated until he was almost yelling to me about what a
bad person the woman was. I hit the
bench with my palm and said, “Now just a minute!” I turned to the bailiff and told him to
prepare to take the man into custody. I
then turned back to the man and, in a much calmer voice, told him that I really
did not want to find him in contempt and order that he be taken to jail, but
that if he did not calm down, that is exactly what I would have to do. He did settle down and was quite respectful
during the rest of the hearing.
Sometimes, a judge needs to appear upset in order to get
everyone’s attention and regain control of the courtroom. Judges can get into difficulty, however, if
they really ARE upset and make extreme remarks that offend.
It’s a fine line, as is much of what judges do. But if walked carefully, we can become better
judges.
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Next week: I Have a
Good Memory…
