Meet Keith Prater

 Over the past 27 years I have come to appreciate the fundamental fact that Judges do not like being presented documents with highlighted passages and handwritten notes beside the part of the document a party thinks is important and wants to make sure the Judge does not overlook it.  Defacing a document or picture that way is really close to demanding that a Judge become a participant in the blind men and the elephant fable Socrates wrote about, rather than be the Judge.  The presentation of any case cannot be a narrowly scoped exercise in selective and highlighted fact presentation.  The Blind Men And The Elephant allegory is an illustration in narrowly focused deductive reasoning the mistakes that such an exercise can create, and in the law it illustrates the banality of the Socratic method when all the material facts are not put before the trier of fact.  The Judge controls his or her court and no one else has any right to ‘sell’ certain passages in a document.  If you have what you think is the ‘end all/be all’ document or picture, make several copies of it and if you feel the urge to point something out on it, write on one of the copies and give that to your lawyer along with a ‘pristine’ copy for the Court.  Your lawyer can then present the clean document to the Judge and then ask to draw the Judges attention to the passage you highlighted in your ‘marked’ copy.  I hope this little ‘tip’ gives you an appreciation for the sophistication the practice of law presents and that you will call me when you have a legal issue.  Keith Prater – 770-253-7778.  Call for an appointment today.