This post was written by Evan Schaeffer: "There's a good article about civility in this month's Illinois Bar Journal: "Uncivil Action," by Helen W. Gunnarsson.
Some tips from the lawyers interviewed for the article:
- It's a waste of time to try to outbully a bully; make a decision not to respond to incivility with incivility;
- You can't reform the small percentage of lawyers who use incivility as a litigation tool; those lawyers, though, will become known for their incivility, which will tend to make it harder for their strategy to work;
- Your own bad behavior will come back to bite you; always treat people with courtesy, even when they're inept at doing it themselves.
Here's my own tip: get more sleep. In my experience, many of the ugly outbursts I've witnessed at depositions, which often lead to apologies later, are caused by stress exacerbated by lack of sleep."
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Source: Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 20 August 2010, reproduced with permission of the author.
