Avoiding Incivility In Litigation
by Joni Johnston, Psy.D. lexisONE August 2003
More than 600 soon-to-be lawyers were taking the California State Bar exams in the Pasadena Convention Center when a 50-year-old test-taker suffered a heart attack. Only two fellow candidates stopped to help the man. They administered CPR until paramedics arrived, then resumed taking the test. Citing policy, the test supervisor refused to allow the helpers any additional time to make up for the 40 minutes they spent helping the victim. Jerome Braun, the state Bar's senior executive for admissions, backed the decision stating, "If these two want to be lawyers, they should learn a lesson about priorities."
Against this kind of backdrop, it's no wonder that, for some of us, the line between winning and waging war is blurred. Clever rebuttals can slip into verbal abuse, zealous advocacy becomes incivility, and the thrill of victory can turn into battle fatigue. In this article, we'll take a look at the role stress plays in incivility and how we can channel the emotional energy of litigation into appropriate, constructive behavior.
continued at http://www.lexisone.com/balancing/articles/sraugust2003.html
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Quis custodiet istos custodes? (Who will watch the watchers?)
-- Juvenal's Satires, circa 110 AD