The Week Before a Court Date
For the week before a court date, when the waiting is worse than the day itself. It gets your questions written down for the lawyer, the papers in one folder, somebody arranged to come with you, and the day after kept clear.
Court · Stress · Worry · Resilience · 9 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Write down the three questions you most want answered — a lawyer's half hour goes fast otherwise.
- Put every document in one folder in date order — hunting for a page on the morning is its own ordeal.
- Visit the building beforehand if you can — a corridor you have already walked is not a strange place.
- Ask what time you actually need to be there — most of a court day is waiting, and waiting plans better.
- Arrange who is coming with you — nobody should hear a decision alone in a hallway.
- Decide what you will not say on the day — a sentence prepared is better than one that escapes.
- Book the day after off as well — an outcome needs somewhere to land that is not your desk.
- Eat something before you go even if you cannot face it — an empty day makes everything feel worse.
- Write down what you will do either way — both outcomes need a next step, not only the bad one.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.