Denver criminal defense lawyer / objections

In a lot of lawyer TV shows, the defense attorneys will make a big deal out of objecting. "Objection, your honor!" Then there will be much hand waiving and screaming about how the judge's ruling is a horrible injustice. In real life, your Denver criminal defense lawyer may make some objections at your trial. He also may make no objections at all. But one thing he should never do is yell at the judge hysterically. That's because the point of an objection isn't really to persuade the judge. It has a couple of other purposes, but a lawyer isn't going to win the trial in an argument over an objection.

In a perfectly run trial, there will be no objections at all. The evidence that needs to be excluded will be knocked out in pre-trial hearings. The defense attorney will get a chance to object. The judge will hear the reasons for these objections, and rule on them. That way, both the prosecutor and the Denver criminal defense lawyer can put on their cases in front of the jury without interruptions for objections.

Of course, this doesn't always work out. Sometimes a prosecutor will forget to disclose something. Sometimes he witheld it in order to ambush the Denver criminal defense lawyer. Who knows why. In other cases, a witness will stray off track and say something that's not allowed. That could be something that he doesn't have personal knowledge of. It could be a statement that happened out of court (that is hearsay). In that case, the defense attorney needs to object. But the objection isn't going to be some sort of hysterical argument about how it's an injustice. Instead, a good lawyer will find the point of objection, say "objection," state the ground and that will be it. If the judge says overruled, so be it. If the judge says granted, good. If the judge asks for more, the lawyer better be ready for that.

The reason for not going crazy when the judge overrules an objection is because the objections are just as much done for the benefit of the defendant on appeal as they are to win the trial. If the judge allows evidence that should not have been allowed, but there is no objection, the error is considered not preserved. That means on appeal the defendant must meet a much higher standard than if there had been an objection. That's because the courts want to create an incentive for the lawyers to force the trial judges to do their jobs. In short, objections are just as much about making a complete record for appeal as they are about winning the trial.