A view from the bench
In a frank conversation about life on the rural bench, Judge Corey Moon sheds light on the attorney shortage plaguing Missouri’s legal deserts—and what separates effective courtroom advocates from the rest.
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By Emily Kelchen | for Raise the Bar
In this candid Q&A, Missouri Associate Circuit Judge Corey Moon opens up about what it’s like to work in a “legal desert,” where almost everyone who comes before the bench is a repeat player. He also offers practical advice for lawyers who want to become more effective advocates.
You worked in private practice and as a prosecutor before becoming a trial court judge, so I’m curious what you have found to be the most surprising or unexpected thing about joining the bench?
Before I started, I always thought about how things could be done differently. Once I was in charge, I realized why some things are the way they are.
I’m now four years in, and I’m just getting to the point where I feel I can start making real changes in the way we work. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to implement some of them, but we’re on the right track.
Is there an appetite for change in your community?
The biggest change people in my area would like to see is an increase in the number of attorneys.
We are at the point where it is difficult to find attorneys who will serve as a guardian ad litem for children in custody or abuse matters. There are very few attorneys who practice criminal law, which decreases the chance a person can hire private counsel to represent them. That, in turn, can lead to more work for the public defenders. We have a shortage of public defenders. We also have a shortage of prosecutors. Two of the three counties in our circuit, including mine, still have a part-time prosecuting attorney position. There are several counties nearby with part-time positions that are not filled by the voters because no one signed up to run. We need more attorneys in rural Missouri. Plain and simple.
It sounds like you probably see most of the attorneys in your area pretty regularly. I don’t want to call anyone out, but can you talk about what habits the most effective attorneys in your courtroom have?
Off the top of my head: They show up prepared. And have their clients in court ready to go. If they’re coming up with a novel argument or theory, they are ready to bolster it with case law or other authority. The pre-hearing memos or briefs they submit are actually brief. They give the court all the information it needs to decide. It’s very difficult to sit through a trial and not have all the information about the elements of a claim.
Is there anything you wish attorneys would stop doing?
Being a lawyer is hard enough. Don’t ever do something just to make life harder for another lawyer. Just because we have an adversarial system doesn’t mean you can’t zealously represent a client and also be respectful to the other side. At the end of the day, everyone is doing a job.