Court Hearings

Family law cases, except in a few limited instances, have hearings open to the public. That being said, many of our local Pinellas County Judges hold their hearings in chambers. Just because they are in chambers, rather than a courtroom, does not make them closed to the public, but it often discourages people not directly involved from sitting in the hearings and makes it somewhat harder to know exactly what hearings are being held and when. Regardless of where a hearing is held the public and the press have a right to attend and sometimes do which is exactly what happened at one of my hearing's yesterday. In general the press' presence is a good and positive thing for our legal system though my clients overwhelmingly prefer hearings held in chambers. When they are held in chambers everyone sits at a large conference table and the proceeding generally seems less formal. In the courtroom the parties must go up to the witness box beside the Judge’s seat and the lawyers stand at the podium when talking. It really depends on the Judge and sometimes the type of hearing as to where the hearing will take place. Letting parties know which location their hearing will be in eases anxiety.