Reading Your Own Transcripts

Skelly links to this nightmare story about a defendant who had his conviction reversed because the judge beat up on his lawyer repeatedly. Apparently, the judge was annoyed with the defense attorney's habit of saying, "Okay" after a witness answered his question. At least 20% of the attorneys in this courthouse do the exact same thing. It is a horrible habit that all of us who have been afflicted with try to erase, but it's not easy. And I don't imagine it is any easier when the judge is threatening to fine you $100 for each time you say it for the rest of the trial. Personally, I am often mortified when I read a transcript of one of my hearings or cases. "Do I really talk like that in trial?," I ask my colleagues. Lots of "okays," and stopping questions in the middle, backing up, and starting new questions. I wonder if trial attorneys reading their own transcripts is an experience akin to actors watching themselves on a big movie screen. Probably not. I'm just romanticizing again, I suppose.