Courtroom Rules

This article is going to be a shorter one, actually! I wanted to focus on something more down to Earth and something that might be useful for all of us!

We all know that courtrooms have rules and when you’re in a courtroom, you need to respect the head of the law. Forget what you know at home, at your workplace, and anywhere else; in a courtroom, you NEED to follow these rules.

Respect is the most important word!

So let’s start with the rules:

1) Mobiles need to be turned off at all times!

This reminds me of school, but it’s pretty obvious why it’s there. If your phone rings during court, it can be distracting and interrupt an important moment which is something everyone wants to avoid.

So always remember to turn it off

2) Don’t Talk

This one means that, especially when you’re in the public gallery, you shouldn’t interrupt and talk loudly. You can get away with whispering to your spouse or anyone sitting next to you, but you’re better off not risking it.

If you’re caught multiple times, you could get kicked off!

3) Stand Up

When they say “All Rise”, you have to do it. You need to show respect to the Judge and you’re showing a disregard for that if you don’t. I used to think of it as ridiculous and unnecessary, but you’ll get used to it 😉

4) Dressing

So this is a bit more tricky. Officially, there is no dress code for a courtroom. There is freedom and you can choose what you want to do 🙂

However, there is a line. Shirts with inappropriate or offensive slogan are forbidden and should absolutely be avoided.

Headwear can be worn, but mainly for religious reasons. A hat, a bandana or other similar garment is usually frowned upon and can get you with a few warnings.

5) Don’t Eat or Drink

This might sound obvious to you, but you’d be surprised how many have done a mistake of this manner. Drinks and food not only bring a bad image upon you, but they also are not allowed.

The same applies for gum or candy, by the way! There’s no loophole here, everything is forbidden.

6) Don’t Be Late

Again another obvious rule. But avoid this. If you’re a few minutes late you won’t ruin anything, but you will certainly end up with a bad first impression!

These are mostly rules that you might be thinking the average person wouldn’t end up breaking. There are other ones, legal ones, which might happen by accident and could be a criminal offense.

Lying in court, enticing another person to lie in court, providing false documents to the court, and arranging another person to provide a false document is a criminal offense! You could get away with it, of course, but the moment you’re found out, it will cost you greatly.

Most importantly, be an honest, law-abiding citizen during court (and preferably, outside of court, thank you very much) and everything will be fine. It might sound stressful, but I promise you, it’s not as harsh as they say 🙂

-Written by Freya Atwood