legal-terms rules-of-court court judge
Asking Judge What He&#39;s/She&#39;s Thinking
<p>What is the legal term for when one wants to ask the judge what he/she is thinking? Such as just before a judgement is about to be handed down?</p>
<p>Would be helpful to know so would use the correct legal term when/if we want to make such an inquiry. &quot;Your Honor, we'd like to make a _______.&quot; For example, if we are not sure which way the judge is leaning and we want to know if he/she is leaning in favor of the other party so we can determine if need to make any further arguments or not.</p>

<h2>If you have something to say, you should have said it before now</h2>
<p>When a judge is about to hand down a decision the case is all but over. Just like figure skating at the Olympics, the points are scored even if nobody but the judges know what they are yet.</p>
<p>The onus is on the parties to bring forward all the evidence and make all the submissions on the law that they want the judge to consider before and during the hearing. If they didn't then that's their fault and they can't introduce new stuff now.</p>
<p>Now, it's not uncommon for a judge to share their thoughts during the hearing or in writing when considering written submissions. This is because their thinking on the law is at variance with what the parties are contending. The plaintiff says the law is X, the defendant says the law is Y, the judge thinks they're both idiots and the law is clearly Z. They will usually call for submissions on this because the judge's role is to decide the dispute between the parties on the evidence the contend -not to impose the judge's interpretation on them; by doing this the parties may relies the judge is right and a lot of the dispute disappears or they may convince the judge that they are wrong (it's not unknown) and move on from a clear agreed position.</p>
