COURT DECORUM
\r\n\r\n1) Dress appropriately.
\r\n\r\n2) Stand each time the Judge enters the courtroom or exits the\r\ncourtroom. Stand each time the jury enters or exits the\r\ncourtroom.
\r\n\r\n3) Please stand when addressing the Court. The court may instruct you to remain seated\r\nin a hearing in which there will be a lot of back and forth discussion amongst\r\nthe court and counsel. Please sit when\r\nquestioning a witness.
\r\n\r\n4) Ask to approach the witness the first time and\r\nthen you may approach freely.
\r\n\r\n5) Don’t address witnesses,\r\nparties or opposing counsel by their first names. Use their titles.
\r\n\r\n6) Line up your witnesses in order to avoid\r\ndelay. Advise the court if there are\r\nwitness timing issues so that witnesses may be taken out of order, if\r\nnecessary, or allowed to be on call so they don’t have to wait a lengthy period of time to\r\ntestify. Parties should be prepared to\r\nallow witnesses to testify out of order and be generous toward each other in\r\nthis regard.
\r\n\r\n7) Identify yourself to the Judge and the court\r\nreporter before a hearing begins. \r\nProvide a business card with your name, correct address, phone number,\r\nfax number and e-mail address. Also\r\ninclude party representation.
\r\n\r\n8) Plaintiff’s exhibits are to be marked\r\nwith “Plaintiff’s Exhibit” stickers. Defendant’s exhibits are to be marked with “Defendant’s Exhibit” stickers. \r\nUse only numbers when marking exhibits instead of letters. Parties should provide their own. In an emergency, a limited number of exhibit\r\nstickers may be obtained from the court reporter.
\r\n\r\n9) A hard copy of the exhibit list and a hard\r\ncopy of the exhibits should be delivered to Judge C. Elliott Thornton and the court reporter 2 business days prior to\r\nthe court proceedings. Exhibits with multiple pages should be stapled, bound\r\nand/or assembled so that they may be accurately preserved.
\r\n\r\n10) Redactions should be made prior to the exhibit being offered. Exhibits redacted after the exhibit is\r\nadmitted (subject to redaction or without initial objection) are to be marked\r\nas an “A” exhibit and the original,\r\nunredacted exhibit is kept by the court reporter for the record. Once an exhibit is offered (even if not\r\nadmitted), it must be tendered to the court reporter.
\r\n\r\n11) Once an exhibit number has been assigned, the same exhibit number\r\nmay not be used for another exhibit, even if the original exhibit is withdrawn\r\nor not used in the hearing or trial.
\r\n\r\n12) Page/line designations of deposition testimony, along with a\r\nnon-condensed copy of the transcript, are to be furnished to the court reporter\r\nprior to the offer. When one person is\r\nreading from written deposition testimony, the reader must say “Question” prior to reading each question and “Answer” prior to reading each answer.
\r\n\r\n13) Arrangements for acquiring testimony after a hearing or during a\r\ntrial may be made directly with the court reporter. Please advise the court reporter a week\r\nbefore a hearing or trial if a daily copy is required. You must notify the other side of your\r\nrequest. You may reach the court\r\nreporter at Cynthia_Daugherty@justex.net or call 832-927-2384.
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