Civil Procedure for Dummies

Rules of Evidence for Dummies

You can read Rules of Civil Procedure, but here are tactical points.

Is judge supposed to know the law? The internet says yes, but for practical purposes, the answer is no. It is yes and no. Yes, they are familiar with law in general, but they can't know everything, especially all case law. That's why relevant cases are presented to the judge in briefs before a hearing. Personal experience: when a tree straddles a boundary line, judge in our case was not aware that any tree on a boundary line cannot be removed without permission of both owners. Both sides own the tree in common. This is common knowledge in tree cases, but our judge asked (not verbatim) regarding our request to not remove trees 'What if a tree sits on both sides of the line'? I assumed that he was not familiar with the law because the answer is clear for a tree straddling a line: you can't take it out unilaterally without other party's permission.

Ex parte - from one side only. Communicating directly with judge without other party - [1]