When I was one year into writing You! be the Judge, I became aware that my daughter –
15 years at the time – was writing with dialogue in all her compositions for English,
I was suitably impressed! (if you're a parent, you can understand the feeling!)
I thought that only the great authors used dialogue, but I immediately was struck with...
"Wow, What a great idea. If she can do it, so can I.
I’m going to have all my characters in the You! be the Judge columns speak in dialogue"
It didn’t take long before I got a call from the staid and proper advertising manager of
one of Canada's largest newspaper that was carrying the column.
(Back then people were still on their best behavior and always worried about being seen to do the
proper thing.)
"We’re uncomfortable that the judge talks in dialogue.
It makes it seem that we’re treating the judge disrespectfully.
Can you remove the dialogue?"
I was completely taken aback!
"It’s the dialogue that makes the judge accessible. Makes him human."
(In those days, with very few exceptions, most judges were men!)
Now I was driven.
I wanted to know how a "real, live judge" would react to speaking dialogue in a public newspaper.
I knew one of the justices in Montreal when he had sat in the lower Superior Court” before being
appointed to the Appeal Court.
I called him.
"Ted,” I asked him, “When you’re sitting on the bench,
and the witness before you is lying through his teeth,
what do you write in your note book, “The credibility of this witness leaves very much to be desired?”
“Hell, no,” responded Ted, “ I scribble furiously into my black book, “Mudzi Menteur - F... liar“
Research over. I explained the reality of judging to the paper who had questioned quoting judges.
I kept writing dialogue for the judges, and the paper who had complained kept on publishing the column!
