Motions

     An essential maxim of law states simply, “A judge who rules without first hearing both sides, though his judgment may be just, is not himself just.”

    Justice implies this essential right to be heard.

    
    One might rather say, true justice requires the right to be heard. The court should give both parties an equal opportunity to present the facts and law on which the court is required to rule with regard to those facts. Each side has a different point of view, but both are given an equal chance to argue their case free from the court’s prejudice or penalty.

    Anything less is … well … un-American!

    
    But!

    Simply arguing to a judge that your “constitutional rights have been violated”, and expecting such a simplified argument to move the court to do something in your favor is a waste of time. Courts don’t operate that way – nor should they. Courts act on pleadings and motions ... not emotional arguments. 

    
    The average courtroom is witness to dozens of complex and sometimes heated legal arguments in the space of an average day. The typical judge reads hundreds of pages of pleadings, motions, notices, and memoranda – not to mention official documents and court records – between the time he arrives at the courthouse in the morning and the hour when he finally heads home to be with his family at the end of the day. Multiply this judicial workload by the number of judges in a typical courthouse, then multiply by the number of days in a year, and you quickly realize why there must be order in the court.

    
     Courts have strict rules that govern everyone equally … giving each person the right to put forth his arguments succinctly and, as the litigant hopes, convincingly, while the court tries to pay attention to both sides and render fair judgments in accordance with the court’s own rules and established protocols.

    
      Legal positions in court are presented with well-reasoned pleadings and motions ... not impassioned "arguments" about constitutional rights or any other kind of "rights" ... other than the right to be heard and present evidence. Pleadings and motions are sometimes amplified by memoranda or persuasively polite presentations at hearings or at trial … but without properly stated pleadings and effective motions, even the most reasonable legal argument by itself will get you nothing. Courts act on pleadings and motions, not argument.

    
    Pleadings state what a case is about.

Motions, on the other hand, state what orders a party wants the court to enter.

    Learn how to properly plead and effectively move the court. These are the tools that make winning lawsuits.