Hi, I'm Dave Ward with The Ward Law Firm and this is our sixth and final video in our series on, what you can expect when going into court and what to do when you're testifying. One of the things that, that can come up and attorneys sometimes will do this on purpose is you can be asked a question in such a way that you're not really sure what it is the person is asking.
They could be asking this question or perhaps they're asking this other totally different question and depending on what question they're asking the answer that you give could be misleading, if it's meant to be the other one. You're not required to guess at your peril about what question is being asked of you.
Keep in mind, when you come in to court the courtroom is designed to be an intimidating environment. Okay, and the reason why it's designed to do that is because somebody decided a long time ago that somebody who's intimidated sitting on the witness stand is more likely to tell the truth. So, it's already an intimidating environment but then being sort of placed in a hot seat and being asked a question you're not really sure what the question is asking, is all that much harder. So if you're confronted with the situation like this and you're not sure what it is that the person is asking it's perfectly okay to tell the person, ”I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, can you rephrase the question?”
This is something that you probably should not have to do a great deal. And in fact, if it becomes the response to every single question that's coming out, well, then it just looks like you're just trying to be difficult. But if you genuinely don't know what it is the person is seeking in terms of the response and what sort of question they're asking you're not required to guess at your peril. It’s perfectly acceptable to say “I'm not sure I understand, can you please ask it a different way or explain what it is you're asking me?”
So, these are just again some tips and tricks to help dealing with being in a courtroom. If you have any questions about this or anything else related to your case, give us a call. I'm Dave Ward with The Ward Law Firm and we help parents protect those things that matter most.