If You Dress Presentable in Court It Shows You Have Respect for the Courtroom
Video Transcribed: First impressions are a lot like steel. Once it’s set and made, it doesn’t change that easily. So how do you make a good first impression in court? Hello, my name is Ryan Cannonie, I’m an CPS Defense Lawyer with the CPS Investigation Defense Law office.
And today I’m not going to talk to you about any type of legal situations or definitions of deprive law or case law. But I want to talk to you about something very simple you can do to make your court appearance go better for you. And that is to treat it like the somber event it is, and to dress up a little bit.
I, as a prosecutor saw for many years where attorneys would raid the lost and found for clothes for their clients to make them look a little better in front of the judge, as we were walking into the courtroom, they’re dressing them down and saying, “Don’t do this. Don’t do that.”
Some real quick rules that will make it easy for you. “Yes, sir. Yes. Ma’am.” There’s no, “Yaas,” in a courtroom. Some attorneys can get away with it. You’re not an attorney. You’re not going to get away with it. Judge doesn’t know you, presumably.
The next thing would be what you wear. And a good example is when I was a very young prosecutor, I was helping to try a murder case. I was a second chair, co-trying it with another prosecutor who had a lot more experience than I do, and did even then.
But when we started that trial, we had a witness who showed up, hadn’t bathed, she had mud all over her clothing. She was wearing a Loony Tunes, Tweety Bird hoodie.
And at the time, it was just chaos trying to find clothes, trying to comb her hair because we knew that if we put her on the stand and she looked the way she came in, jurors would not give her the same credibility as if she were wearing a nice blouse and had her hair combed.
And that kind of goes for everyone in the courtroom. If you show up and you look a certain way, you’re dressed up nice, you don’t have to be tuxedo or anything. It’s just very conservative attire. Women, blouse or dress and pants. Men, a tie and a buttoned shirt.
It really does go a long way with everyone in the courtroom. It makes it seem like you appreciate the nature of why you’re there, that you have respect for the court. And a lot of times, by doing that one little thing, before anyone opens their mouth, before your attorneys make your arguments, before a judge asks you any questions that they want answered, you’ve already gained so much credibility with everyone around you, it’s going to make the process a lot easier for you and your attorney. And if you need an Oklahoma DHS attorney that, even if you aren’t wearing a buttoned up shirt and tie, will take your case and try to help you, then please give us a call.