Martial Arts and Wing Tsun Kung Fu have a lot in common with legal proceedings and learning is an essential part of both. Doing a google search on what is a court pleading will give you no doubt the definition, but as nothing is black and white I thought I share some of my thoughts on the topic. All these points have parallels in Wing Tsun Kung Fu and are here to help our students understand more the discipline that is required inside and outside our training hall.
What is a court pleading? Well just like preparing for a competition or a championship match, you are preparing yourself to be the best you can. Just like Wing Tsun Kung Fu has sequences of moves better known as forms, court pleadings have rules and expectations. You wouldn’t enter into a competition or match without some preparation and the same goes for our lessons. They prepare you learn how to deal with your opponent or in this case, the process. Inside our classes we learn to clear up our mind and bring it into focus, we line up the clothes we are going to wear tomorrow, we line up our lunch, clothes, make sure we are looking our best and are living our life to the best of our ability. The end result, we go into a competition, a fight or a court case wearing and acting like a champion.
Like anything a little structure goes a long way. If you are going to learn how to file court pleadings, they provide a structure for your case as much as our form provide a structure for our fighting.
Just like our system applies to multiple situations that you can find yourself in, a lawyer must know how to apply the law that is relevant to a particular case.
Discipline is essential. Any lawyer that shows up to a case unprepared will be in trouble and the same goes for students that go to class unprepared or don’t practice out of class.
You need to think on your feet, when something goes wrong, either in the Wing Tsun training hall or in court, you need to adapt quickly to the circumstances that are presented to you. Your opponent will not be expecting your next move and neither will the Judge expect the next words out of your mouth.
As with all things in life, you need direction and guidance. Take a good instructor, this person is there to guide you, prepare you and advise you. They teach you all of the skills required so that you can grow and reach new heights.
Knowing your opponent and being able to read them is always a useful skill in any circumstance. It allows you to stay one step ahead. The more you master your opponent, the better you know your opponent, the more you know how to put them off balance. This rings true for both parties involved in a legal case.
Finding clarity out of Chaos takes some experience but using Wing Tsun Kung Fu training is one of the best ways to gain this experience. Mastering your opponent gives you control of the situation around you and to some extent, they in turn have control over you. This gives you a sense of balance and mutual respect. Balance can mean the difference between winning a fight and losing one.
There have been some very famous court cases that required pleadings that took into account all of the nuances of the law and the law of the land. Most famously, Brown v. Board of Education was a monumental case in the US Supreme Court that required some very carefully drafted pleadings. In this instance, the pleadings needed to show why segregation in public schools was inherently unequal. As you can imagine, this was no easy task and the case set a precedent that remains so important today.
It is probable that your lawyer has studied law for many years and has mastered the ability to learn and adapt in the short time that they have available in order to pass their exams. Like Wing Tsun Kung Fu, they will have learned (and continue to learn) every nuance of the art and carry on despite facing some great challenges that (going to court is a big one). Every day they will study, lose sleep, practice, and adapt in order to perfect their legal craft. Masters of their trade, they are able to rise to any challenge that appears before them.
Many of our students come to us knowing very little about Wing Tsun Kung Fu, and others are seasoned martial artists. What we intend with this blog post is to highlight the similarities between Wing Tsun Kung Fu and the process of filing a court pleading, allowing those considering becoming students to see the similarities. The point is not whether you are facing court or not, if you have a court case on the horizon or not, the aim of this post is to show the reader that martial arts and legal work are well matched.
For more information on legal proceedings, you can visit USCourts.gov.