As litigators swapped war stories during the 2023 State Bar of Georgia's annual meeting on June 8 in Savannah, Judges Joe Bishop, Christopher McFadden, Rucker Smith and Russell Smith took to the stage to caution and advise how to avoid mishaps.

Russell Smith, the Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court chief judge, recalled one incident where a defendant in a domestic criminal case was intoxicated, naked and slathered in peanut butter when he was arrested. "The law enforcement asked him, 'Why would you do such a thing?'" he said. "And his response was—I'm not making this up, this was in the police report—'I heard it would help with the judge.'"