When I was writing Legal-Ease, my column which preceded You! be the Judge,
my daughter, Elissa, was in high school writing her great stories....with dialogue!
REAL LIVE DIALOGUE!!
I had always thought dialogue writing was strictly in the domain of the professional writer.
But Elissa' high school stories gave me the permission I needed to insert dialogue
into Legal Ease.. (And later on in You! be the Judge dialogue became the mainstay.)
One day I got a call from the Advertising Manager of the Toronto Star,
one of the subscribers to Legal-Ease.
"Claire, your column is very popular. But we're very uncomfortable with a judge being quoted!"
I told her i would examine the problem and get back to her.
As soon as i hung up the phone I immediately called a friend, Mel Rothman,
who was then sitting on the Quebec Superior Court.
"Mel, when you're sitting on the bench and the witness before you is lying through his teeth,
what do you write in your little black book in front of you on your "pulpit?"
'The credibility of this witness leaves very much to be desired'
Mel rushed to reply.
“Hell, NO! I quickly scribble into my book.
'This witness is 'un mouzi menteur!' - a 'bloody liar!'"
Now that I knew how "real" judges speak, I continued writing in Legal-Ease
dialogue based on the words a judge had written in the judgment.
I explained to the Toronto Star the base for my decision,
They had no choice.
The Toronto Star stopped "qvetching"
Note: 3 years into You! be the Judge and Elissa Bernstein took over
the writing for the next 19 years.
