After the case was over he called him to the bench and said
that he was sorry he had an accident, and asked him what had happened.
"Oh, not much," said the lawyer, "last week I simply lost a case for a
client."
The complaint of the lawyer against the judge is always that he has
forgotten that he was a lawyer once himself. He does not realize how
important it is that the lawyer should make a good impression on his
client. His feeling is, if the judge cuts him off when he is arguing,
the client will think that he is talking foolishly. The judge
overrules his objection. The client thinks the judge does not like
him. The judge denies his motion to strike out, he evidently does not
look on the lawyer favorably. The lawyer's chance of display is in
talking. If he is not allowed to go on he feels the judge is
unreasonable in not listening to him.
The nice lines to be made by the judge between consideration for the
feeling of the lawyers and insisting that justice be fully and
speedily accomplished, are hard to draw. On the one hand there are
the courts where no limit is put to the digressions of attorneys and
where they may wander on and on, apparently merely to display their
oratory to their clients, and other courts where the undoubtedly bad
manners of the bench to the bar are unforgivable.
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