George Gordon's School of Law

This is the only authorized site for George Gordon's original school still at the farm in Isabella, Missouri since 1984, and still at the original phone number.

Basic Courtroom Strategy & Procedure

If you have ever watched one of those courtroom drama shows, and wondered what Perry Mason felt like, standing in front of everyone as he prepared to unmask the real villain and get his innocent client off the hook, this class is for you. Have you ever sat in the innocent client's seat, watching as an overpriced lawyer screwed up and you paid the price because he either didn't know what he was doing, or didn't care? Remember, he gets paid win or lose.

The Basic Courtroom Strategy and Procedure class is a two-week long class devoted to teaching an individual those basic skill necessary for him to function in today's courtroom. These include such things as what types of pleadings are available to a person charged with a crime, how to write motions, interrogatories, answers, and complaints, and what types to write in various situations, how to conduct discovery, and what to do when, and if, you reach trial, such as examining and cross-examining witnesses, objecting to questions, motions, and other moves by your opponent, and how to behave yourself in court.

Some people might ask 'How can I learn everything a lawyer does in two weeks, when it takes them two years?' The short answer is: you don't. Remember that a law school education encompasses much more than simply knowing your way around a trial courtroom. Most graduates of law school spend time apprenticing themselves to a more experienced lawyer because they didn't get that much classroom instruction or practical experience in handling themselves in court. This class doesn't teach the ins and outs of legal ethics, legal history, how to bill your client, attorney/client privilege, and hundreds of other topics that make up the vast majority of class hours spent in law school. Instead, it concentrates on what to do before you set foot in a courtroom, what to do once you're there, and how to win.

If you're wondering what reasons you might have to take such a class besides simple curiosity, or the desire to understand just what your lawyer is doing the next time you're in court, there are a number of good reasons. The first is simple economics. Let's say you take this class, go into court over a speeding ticket, and lose. You have to pay the ticket. If you'd hired a lawyer, the odds are still pretty good that you'd end up paying the ticket, plus whatever your lawyer cost. Maybe you couldn't afford a lawyer, so you got a public defender. You should keep in mind that in the vast majority of cases where a public defender is present, he isn't there to try and win the case, he's there because the Supreme Court said that you had to have representation. Which means that he'd probably tell you to go ahead and pay the stupid ticket, because he has thirty more people with similar cases that he has to get through before lunch. And they all get paid, win or lose.

Another reason can be found in Volume 7 of Corpus Juris Secudum, which states, under the heading 'Attorney and Client:' "A client is one who applies to a lawyer or counselor for advice and direction in a question of law, or commits his cause to his management in prosecuting a claim or defending against a suit in a court of justice; one who retains the attorney, is responsible to him for his fees, and who is the attorney responsible for the management of the suit? One who communicates facts to an attorney expecting professional advice? Clients are also called 'wards of the court' in regard to their relationship with their attorney." And regarding attorneys, "His first duty is to the courts and the public, not to the client, and wherever the duties to his client conflict with those he owes as an officer of the court in the administration of justice, the former must yield to the latter." If you go and look up what is meant by 'ward of the court' you'll see that by the simple act of hiring an attorney, you've declared yourself a legal incompetent. And here you thought you were being smart by going out and hiring a lawyer. Still wonder why pro se litigants win so many more cases than lawyers? Well, for one thing, it's their hide on the line, not some lawyer, who'll go home to a good dinner and bed, even if he loses. If they'd lock lawyers up with clients who were found guilty, do you think they'd have a better win record? Also, how does it feel now that you know that old Honest John, the lawyer with a heart, really has the court's and the public's interests ahead of yours?

Many of Georges students, simply by understanding the true goal of the courts, can circumvent trials through administrative hearings. They also learn to stop wasting time, settle out of court when appropriate, create and record exculpatory evidence, and set up appealable issues.

This complete legal education is two weeks long - call for current pricing.

Will Rogers used to talk about there being more than one way to skin a cat - let us teach you how.