You have your very first court appearance. You’re nervous and you don’t know what the heck you are doing. For those who practice in less popular firms or in a solo practice, your first appearance in court is often by yourself. How do you avoid looking like a newbie?

Whether it’s a simple case management conference, a motion to compel, or a summary judgment hearing, here are our tips that you will help you to be prepared for your first court appearance.

And no, I’m not going to tell you to be on time, be respectful, or dress appropriately. Those are a given. If you screw those up, the ship may have already sailed on the whole “you-look-like-you-know-what-you-should-be-doing” thing.

THE DAY BEFORE THE HEARING:

1. Check the court calendar and/or tentative ruling.

Most courts have an online calendaring system that will show whether a hearing is still on calendar, whether a tentative ruling has been issued, and whether a hearing is required. Some courts will have a telephone option for tentative rulings.

For basic case management conferences, you just need to know that the matter is still on calendar. Generally, for other hearings, if a tentative ruling is issued, you must advise the court and opposing counsel if you plan to appear at the hearing, usually by 4 p.m. on the day before the hearing. If you don’t, and the other party does not appear, you will not be allowed to argue. If you don’t want to contest the tentative ruling, then you don’t have to appear unless opposing counsel advises they plan on appearing. If no one appears, then the tentative ruling is adopted. If the tentative says “hearing required,” you must appear.

2. Familiarize yourself with the local rules.

This goes hand in hand with the first tip. Every court is just a little bit different. So go online, check the local court rules, and make sure you follow the directions, especially with respect to tentative rulings.

3. Find out about the judge.

Just as every court is a little bit different, judges also have their own way of doing things. Ask the partners or more senior associates in your firm for any insight. Attorney list-serves are also a great resource.

4. Review the file.

Being prepared is a must. Take time the day before to review the file and familiarize yourself with the case and its details.

DUTY OF ADVOCATES:

An advocate is considered as an officer of the court, honoured member of the community, and a gentleman, thinking that to become a member of the bar he has to be lawful and moral not only in his professional capacity but also in his non professional capacity. An advocate has to courageously support the interest of his client and also have to follow the principles of ethics and etiquette both in correspondence.

Following are the duties of advocate towards to court:

1. An advocate while presenting his case should conduct himself with dignity and self respect
2. Respectful attitude must be maintained by the advocate. He has to keep in mind the dignity of the judge.
3. An advocate should not, by any improper means should influence the decision given by the court.
4. An advocate can make a complaint against the judicial officer but it has to be before proper authorities and there has to be serious offence done by the judicial officer.
5. It is the duty of the advocate to prevent his client from resorting to unfair practices and also the advocate himself should not do any of such acts.
6. Dress code has to be maintained by the advocate while appearing before the court.
7. An advocate should not take up any case of his family members and relatives.
8. No bands or gowns had to be worn by the advocate in the public places. It is only limited to the court premises.
9. An advocate cannot be as a surety for his client. An advocate shall not act or plead in any matter in which he has some kind of pecuniary interest.
10. It is the duty of the advocate to cooperate with the bench in the court.
11. It is the duty of the advocate to perform his functions in such a manner that due to his acts the honour, dignity and integrity of the courts shall not be affected.
12. An advocate should not laugh or speak loudly in the court room especially when the proceedings are going on.
13. When an advocate accepts a brief, he should attend all adjournments properly. If he has any other work in another court, he should first obtain the permission from the court concerned. Particularly in criminal cases, it is the first and foremost duty of an advocate to attend.
14. While the case is going on, the advocate cannot leave the court without court’s permission and without putting another man in charge, preferably his colleague or junior or friend advocate.

WHO IS AN ADVOCATE?

In India, the law relating to the Advocates is the Advocates Act, 1961 introduced and thought up by Ashoke Kumar Sen, the then law minister of India, which is a law passed by the Parliament and is administered and enforced by the Bar Council of India. Under the Act, the Bar Council of India is the supreme regulatory body to regulate the legal profession in India and also to ensure the compliance of the laws and maintenance of professional standards by the legal profession in the country.

Each State has a Bar Council of its own whose function is to enroll the Advocates willing to practice predominantly within the territorial confines of that State and to perform the functions of the Bar Council of India within the territory assigned to them. Therefore, each law degree holder must be enrolled with a (single) State Bar Council to practice in India. However, enrollment with any State Bar Council does not restrict the Advocate from appearing before any court in India, even though it is beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the State Bar Council which he is enrolled in.

The advantage of having the State Bar Councils is that the workload of the Bar Council of India can be divided into these various State Bar Councils and also that matters can be dealt with locally and in an expedited manner. However, for all practical and legal purposes, the Bar Council of India retains with it, the final power to take decisions in any and all matters related to the legal profession on the whole or with respect to any Advocate individually, as so provided under the Advocates Act, 1961.

The process of being entitled to practice in India is twofold. First, the applicant must be a holder of a law degree from a recognized institution in India (or from one of the four recognized Universities in the United Kingdom) and second, must pass the enrollment qualifications of the Bar Council of the state where he/she seeks to be enrolled. For this purpose, the Bar Council of India has an internal Committee whose function is to supervise and examine the various institutions conferring law degrees and to grant recognition to these institutions once they meet the required standards. In this manner, the Bar Council of India also ensures the standard of education required for practicing in India is met with. As regards the qualification for enrollment with the State Bar Council, while the actual formalities may vary from one State to another, yet predominately they ensure that the application has not been a bankrupt /criminal and is generally fit to practice before courts of India.

Enrollment with a Bar Council also means that the law degree holder is recognized as an Advocate and is required to maintain a standard of conduct and professional demeanor at all times, both on and off the profession. The Bar Council of India also prescribes “Rules of Conduct” to be observed by the Advocates in the courts, while interacting with clients and even otherwise.

All Advocates in India are at the same level and are recognized as such. Any distinction, if any, is made only on the basis of seniority, which implies the length of practice at the Bar. As a recognition of law practice and specialization in an area of law, there is a concept of conferral of Senior Advocate status. An Advocate may be recognized by the Judges of the High Court (in case of an Advocate practicing before that High Court) or by the Supreme Court (in case of the Advocate practicing before the Supreme Court). While the conferral of Senior Advocate status not only implies distinction and fame of the Advocate, it also requires the Senior Advocate to follow higher standards of conduct and some distinct rules. Also, a Senior Advocate is not allowed to interact directly with the clients. He can only take briefs from other Advocates and argue on the basis of the details given by them. From the year 2010 onward a mandatory rule is made for lawyers passing out from the year 2009-10 to sit for an evaluation test named AIBE (All India Bar Exam) for one to qualify as an advocate and practice in the courts. However, to practice law before the Supreme Court of India, Advocates must first appear for and qualify in the Supreme Court Advocate on Record Examination conducted by the Supreme Court.

Further, under the Constitutional structure, there is a provision for the elevation of Advocates as judges of High Courts and Supreme Court. The only requirement is the Advocate must have ten years standing before the High Court(/s) or before the Supreme Court to be eligible for such. (Article 217 and 124 of the Constitution of India for High Courts and Supreme Court respectively)

Employee experience is all about providing employees with an environment where they want, not need to come to work–a place where they can feel energized and free to be themselves to get their best work done. But what does that actually look like? Based on interviews with hundreds of executives and leaders at companies around the world ranging from the Chairman of the Board at Yahoo to the CHRO of Marriott to the CEO of Jamba Juice for my new book, I put together a framework that allows companies to design great employee experiences. Employee experience may seem complicated, but it really boils down to three environments: technological, physical, and cultural.

• Technological Environment. This includes giving employees the right tools to do their jobs–the internal social network, mobile devices, laptops, desktops, and video conferencing solutions, apps, and more. Employees can easily get frustrated if they are forced to use outdated programs or the wrong tools.

• Physical Environment. The physical space is exactly that–what you see, touch, taste, and smell in the workplace. It involves everything from how the office is laid out to the demographics of the people who work there. It should make employees excited to come to work.

• Cultural Environment. This is all about how an office and company feels. It’s the vibe you get when you walk in the door and the tone the workplace sets, which comes from the leadership style, sense of purpose, organizational structure, people, and more.

A total of fifty terrorist from have been killed from the beginning of the year 2020 in Jammu and Kashmir. The list of terrorists includes commanders of Jaish-e-Mohmmad (JeM) and Lashker-e-Tioba (LeT) which are credited to one of the most wanted terrorist groups in the country. The commanders from the groups were killed in counter firing, the officials said. According to officials, sevneteen security forces personnel lost their lives while fighting against the terrorists in the union territory. It is also believed that the militants also killed four civilians in the last four months. From the fifty terrorists killed this year, eighteen were said to be killed during the nationwide lockdown from 25th March in order the control the spreading of coronavirus across the country. Seventy-eight terrorists were killed in January-May this year as opposed to 101 being killed in the same period in 2019. The number of terrorist incidents, however, dropped from 223 to 78 in the same period.The officer said the recent increase in encounters and operations by security forces was not unusual and should not be seen in isolation as the focus was on stopping young boys from joining the terrorist ranks.
So far this year we have been successful in stopping 20 boys who could have joined terrorist groups. Pakistan is leaving no stone unturned by pushing fake propaganda and old messages to recruit them. Avinash Mohananey, a former Director General of Police who has also worked in Kashmir, shows angry against the government said the most significant part of continued terrorism was the ongoing local recruitment.Officials said that Pakistan continued to push terrorists and weapons from across the border and it did not wait even a single day as the snow melted . According to UAPA cases Article 370 was neither the problem nor a solution to militancy, the source is Pakistan. A clear-cut strategy is required as Kashmiris did not react violently react to 370. The next step is how to win the people over, but it cannot be done by killing them and without reviving the political process. The solution does not lie in violence.

Trick-or-treating is a Halloween ritual custom for children and adults in some countries. Children in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase “Trick or treat”. The “treat” is usually some form of candy, although in some cultures money is given instead. The “trick” refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on the homeowner(s) or their property if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating usually occurs on the evening of October 31. Some homeowners signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors; others simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely. Houses may also leave their porch light on as a universal indicator that they have candy.

In Britain and Ireland, the tradition of going house to house collecting food at Halloween goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. There are many accounts from 19th-century Britain and Ireland of people going house to house in costume at Halloween, reciting verses in exchange for food, and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed.[1] In North America, trick-or-treating has been a Halloween tradition since the 1920s. The earliest known occurrence there of the Scottish Halloween custom of “guising” – children going from house to house for food or money while disguised in costume[2] – is from 1911, when children were recorded as having done this in Ontario, Canada.[3] While going house to house in costume has long been popular among the Scots and Irish, it is only recently that saying “Trick or treat” has become common in Scotland and Ireland. The activity is prevalent in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Puerto Rico, and northwestern and central Mexico. In the last, this practice is called calaverita (Spanish diminutive for calavera, “skull” in English), and instead of “Trick or treat”, the children ask, “¿Me da mi calaverita?” (“Can you give me my little skull?”), where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.

The absurd stigma that is attached to mental health has become the paramount subject to focus on because of the unfinished business that untreated illness has. Apparently , fifty percent of the statistical records say that mental illness isn’t taken seriously and half the people are left untreated in a sane and safe process. Accepting the fact that physical illness of the brain causes disturbances in thinking, behavior, energy or emotion that make it difficult to cope with the ordinary demands of life. The undivided attention or energy isn’t perpetual at all the stages of mood disorders. Mental health illness has its own subdivided sections which are going unnoticed and underrated. Typically , as people will tell you , “in those days we used to sit and talk which resulted in peace and compressed our tensions” not mocking but stating facts. As of now when we propose to talk people just come up with more of tremendous amount of toxic energy when the talk about compressing depression or anxiety comes up. In such of an unhealthy and toxic generation there are no quality talks which lead to peace. The heart-to-heart talk is now a “once upon a time” thing , now it’s just toxic gossiping , unhealthy narcissism and what not.

Anxiety and panic attacks aren’t joke material – There will be a chance of getting better about the mental illness factors when people start seeing it through the complex lens of what it actually can do to a stable person. For a normal being , depression , anxiety and impulsiveness are just a flexing thing for therapy whereas , they are for real and very much a thing these days when compared to the old days. Mental illness doesn’t require therapy sessions which cost you a bomb , sometimes it’s just an authentic person who can listen to all your problems and try to fix them by peace-talking you. It’s not gossiping and sulking about things which makes you feel better it’s the quality time that you take out to put yourself out there in the raw and real world to find your exposure with the people you share closure with. Therefore , repeating isn’t a crime so , depression isn’t a joke and don’t make it one.

You may have read thousands of articles about the pitfalls of using Social media. These articles tells us social media kills our creativity, increase the chances of plagiarism, needs to have a strong internet connection 24/7, can affect our eyesight badly and many more. No doubt these points are true and we need to focus to make the use of internet beneficial in all aspects, but Social media can work as a boon for your business.I read a saying which goes like,”The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years” , this itself is enough to tell us the significance of social media for your business. Gone are the days when business just meant doing and promoting things offline, now through the help of various social media platforms you can extend the reach of your product. Here is a list about how the social media can help your business miraculously :

LARGE AUDIENCE CONNECTIVITY – Internet is a platform which can help to increase the headcount of your business. It works as a common link between customers and the organization. Its an extraordinary open door for your business to arrive at an enormous pool of individuals that are keen on your items.

HELPS TO CREATE AUTHENTIC CONTENT – The capacity to post natural substance for nothing is an inconceivable advantage for based life for business. This opens numerous open door for your organization to associate with important leads at no expense.

BRAND CREATION – One bit of leeway of web based life advertising is the capacity to manufacture your image.At the point where you interface with intrigued drives, you open them to your image. This constructs brand faithfulness. The more individuals get presented to your image, the more they become acquainted with it.

YOU CAN EVALUATE YOUR PERFORMANCE – Internet based life stages make it simple for you to follow your battle to check whether you are driving significant outcomes. You can decide what number of individuals see your posts, remark, similar to offer, and the sky is limit there. At the point when you can assess your online life system’s exhibition, you can streamline it and improve it to drive better outcomes.

YOU CAN UNCOVER VALUABLE INSIGHTS – You can likewise utilize online life to increase significant data about your clients that will assist you with settling on more brilliant business choices. For example, social listening enables you to find how individuals feel about your organization and brand.