 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Vaughn v. Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.7/29/2005
wsuit. And if it's not relevant, don't stop to look at it.
Go right ahead, sir, please.
MR. HAYNES: Thank you -
THE COURT: And please move along.
MR. HAYNES: -- your Honor.
MR. HAYNES: Looking at Sunday the 19th -- and before we leave Saturday, you don't have any specific memory as to when you were off job site on Saturday --
[THE WITNESS]: No, sir.
[MR. HAYNES]: -- the I-95 job site? Or when the job actually shut down on Saturday?
[THE WITNESS]: No, sir.
THE COURT: Sir, what does that have to do with this case?
MR. HAYNES: Your Honor, the accident happened on Saturday night after the midnight hour.
THE COURT: We don't know that. That's not been established. There's no evidence in the record of that.
MR. HAYNES: That's what I'm trying to establish. THE COURT: I've heard no evidence in the record that the accident even happened, for that matter.
MR. HAYNES: You haven't?
THE COURT: No, I haven't. "It cannot be too often repeated, or too strongly emphasized, that the function of a . . . trial judge is not that of an umpire or of a moderator at a town meeting." A trial is not a game of sport where umpires engage in heated discussion with players who have allegedly broken the rules, and it is not a town meeting where moderators scold citizens who promote their self-interests or voice their grievances in a manner and with language unbecoming the solemnity of a courtroom. Rather, a trial is a formal proceeding where "every litigant is entitled to nothing less than the cold neutrality of an impartial judge" charged with the duty to ensure that every grievance is fairly resolved in accordance with the rules of evidence and trial procedure. State ex rel. Davis v. Parks, 194 So. 613, 615 (1939). The requirement of neutrality helps to guarantee that life, liberty, or property will not be taken on the basis of an erroneous or distorted conception of the facts or the law. At the same time, it preserves both the appearance and reality of fairness, "generating the feeling, so important to a popular government, that justice has been done," Joint Anti-Fascist Committee v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, 172, 71 S.Ct. 524, 649, 95 L.Ed. 817 (1951) (Frankfurter, J., concurring), by ensuring that no person will be deprived of his interests in the absence of a proceeding in which he may present his case with assurance that the arbiter is not predisposed to find against him.
Marshall v. Jerrico, Inc., 446 U.S. 238, 242 (1980) (citation omitted).
Trial judges must be fair, impartial, and disinterested participants in the proceedings. It is their obligation to see that justice is done and to that end, they have no more important duty than to ensure that the facts are properly developed through compliance with the rules of evidence and trial procedure and that those facts relevant and material to the questions at issue are fairly and properly presented to the jury. To fulfill that duty, trial judges should not hesitate to rebuke counsel who attempt to circumvent the pertinent evidentiary and procedural rules, delay the proceedings, or engage in antics that prejudice the fair administration of justice.
When the trial court believes that counsel's misbehavior or improper conduct warrants rebuke, the trial court must attempt to do so in a manner that does not disfavor one party to the jury. See Gomez v. State , 751 So. 2d 630, 632 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999) ("The trial court retains the ultimate responsibility for the proper conduct of trial counsel and trial proceedings in her courtroom."). Thus, in such instances, the court
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Florida Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|