Unreasoned Tolerance of Intimidation

This page addresses a failure mode with consequences far beyond ordinary litigation misconduct: the court’s unreasoned tolerance of intimidation.

When intimidation is allowed to operate in open view, it does more than injure the immediate target. It creates a chilling effect on witnesses, on supporting participants, and on other would-be litigants who can see what happens to people who come forward. It makes the presentation of evidence more dangerous, more costly, and sometimes impossible in practical terms.

That danger becomes especially acute when the court permits the misconduct without meaningful explanation. A court that tolerates intimidation without reason does not merely fail to stop it. It can unintentionally validate it, encouraging abusers to escalate while forcing the other side to choose between silence and risk. In my experience, that pattern was borne out in real life: after repeated acquiescence to misconduct in my cases, the defendant was later charged in the state murder case with more than twenty witness-intimidation counts for similar conduct.