LEGAL LITERACY: HOW THE LAW WORKS

Legal literacy helps allay fear of the courtroom.

Unless you work there, walking into a courtroom the first time is intimidating.

And it’s no accident.

Court decor is meant as a reminder: Bring your A-Game.

One thing I’ve done as a parent is show my kids places where things happen.

Then we talk about it.

One of their baby sitters she’d never been to Portland. The BIG CITY was too much.

It’s about six miles away from where we lived.

With that in mind I took my young kids downtown to look around more times than they probably wanted to go.

One time I had my oldest with me and we stopped in the courthouse to watch the proceedings. I think he was in grade school.

They brought out a man in an orange suit and sat him in a chair inside a plexiglass box, if my memory is correct.

Lawyers spoke in front of a judge while the guy sat there.

We talked about it.

Me: Did you see all of those people?

Kid: Yes. What do they do?

Me: They apply the law when someone commits a crime.

Kid: Oh.

Me: Did you see any scary people in there?

Kid: Yes.

Me: Which one?

Kid: The man talking to the judge.

To him the lawyers were more frightening than the man in the orange suit sitting in a protective box.

My work was not finished.

Legal Literacy In High School

I sat in court with one of my kids with a traffic problem.

He hit a car stopped in the middle of the road during white-out fog.

We’d made phone calls, inspected the scene of the accident, and came prepared.

The kid presented his case like a pro. He did it the right way and proved his innocence.

But the judge still ruled against him, citing that he followed too close.

Except he wasn’t following. The car was at a dead stop, invisible in the fog.

We talked about it on the way to paying the fine. He wasn’t happy. We both learned about legal literacy.

Kid: I wasn’t following too close.

Me: I know, but the judge made the call.

Kid: He’s wrong.

Me: You know it, I know it. Do you know who doesn’t know it?

Kid: The judge.

Me: But he made a decision based on his interpretation of the law.

Kid: How can I follow too close when the other car wasn’t moving?

Me: When you rear end another car, it’s the driver’s fault.

Kid: He wasn’t driving, he was sitting in the middle of the road.

Me: Remember this when you get a mail-in ballot asking you to vote on judges. Remember this one’s name and don’t vote for him.

Kid: Is that what you do when you lose in court?

Me: That’s how it works if you want to change the system.

Kid: You vote?

Me: Yes, and you will too. We vote for fairness and needed change. Voting works.

Kid: When do I get to vote?

Me: When you turn eighteen.

Kid: I’m seventeen.

Me: Yes, you are.

Who Is Above The Law?

The correct answer to who is above the law is: No one.

However, if a rich man spends a fortune on insider lawyers who know judges and work their special magic, there is a perception.

If you act as if the law doesn’t apply, you might be right.

But if you’re not right, don’t whine about it.

The FBI has a job to do. For regular citizens our job is to not cross the line into FBI territory.

“But I know people,” is not a get out of jail card.

“I used to be the president,” won’t do it, either.

You could try, “I’ve made a mistake and I’m ready to atone.”

Laws and lies often work hand in hand, the wrong hand. If a leader finds it difficult to tell the truth in one instance, how do we believe them the rest of the time? If they lie from one side of their face, and talk law from the other side, how are we supposed to keep track? Or is it better to quit trying?

Leadership luxury used to be defined as trust. Like a good marriage where one partner takes a fishing trip to Nevada and the other partner is confident they won’t gamble away the house, catch the rot from a ranch hand, and bring a showgirl home, we like feeling our elected officials operate under the same system as the rest of us.

Following the legal literacy examples outlined in this post, a man famous for lying about everything from hurricanes to covid, to lying about his wealth, health, and mental stability; such a man needs a come to Jesus moment.

But his evangelical base can’t bring him to their special Jesus.

They’ve tried to reach the former president, but he isn’t interested. Or, he’s as interested as he was when they were making him the Second Coming.

The second coming notion stopped after this one term president missed the cut for a second term. Now he’s a bench warmer and they need a new messiah.

Dear Sketchy Ministers,

Your next messiah man won’t be the second coming, or the third. Jerky politicians don’t need pumping up from your altar. Why not feed your church group a diet of reality. Maybe focus on the teachings of Jesus instead of what some television church man says.

Stand up with the truth in the Bible, not some worn out entitlement rant that you deserve so much more than you receive.

Can I get an “AMEN BROTHER?”