To those who insist that I “show respect” for an opposing party or his counsel who makes and argues for false allegations:

To those who insist that I (or anyone, for that matter) “show respect” for an opposing party or his counsel who makes and argues for false allegations:

Do not ask me to” show respect” for such because in doing so you are asking me to be complicit in perpetrating a fraud on the court.   By insisting that I respect that which is inherently dishonorable, you force me to lend it undeserved substance, credence, and merit.

How can the Utah Bar and Supreme Court ask us to encounter scurrilous accusations made orally and in print and respond to them in court dispassionately?

Do not ask me to come into court defending a client accused of child molestation without questioning the accuser’s own motives and parental fitness.

Do not ask me to come into court representing a man who has gladly worked himself to the bone for the support of his family and whose wife is seeking this sterilely-labeled “sole custody” without questioning the accuser and her motives.

Do not ask me to react differently than I (or you) would were we in circumstances where our very freedom, families, and property at stake.

Family law is somewhat different that other forms of litigation.  When your life, your freedom, your family, your livelihood, and your character are under attack, NOBODY wants an attorney or judge who takes a detached “professional” approach.  NOBODY wants an attorney or judge how values “civility” over the messy, difficult business of wresting truth and justice from a fickle, often fraudulent, and unfair world.

Respect  is not synonymous with acceptance or even tolerance.  One tolerates offensive speech; one does not tolerate slander.   One respects a difference of opinion; one does not respect outright misrepresentation masquerading as earnestness or fact.

You would never ask that I “show respect” for racist views now, would you?  Well then, for the love of decency, if an opposing party knowingly (or even recklessly or negligently) accuses my client falsely of being a child molester or a spouse abuser, do not expect me to treat this outrage as a simple “difference of opinion” or “a question of opposing viewpoints” that is debated like some moot academic curiosity.  There is nothing civilized about treating an unabashed, unrepentant liar’s self-serving position with respect.  There is no reason for civilized people to treat an unabashed, unrepentant liar’s self-serving position with anything other than contempt and overt hostility.  ”Withholding judgment” out of some misguided sense of impartiality is not a virtue in a judge.  The other side of the same coin dictates that you do not fall victim to the prejudice contrived by accusation, i.e., do not let sensational, inflammatory allegations or conventional wisdom distract or dissuade you from the deliberate, analytical, discerning, and impartial search for the truth (which is the source of the facts upon which a just judgment rests).   Prejudice born of mere accusation results in the hasty, inattentive, gullible, and/or slanted application of justice.

Be Sociable, Share!

•