Making Room Ch. 6: Judge Virga – Justice and Truth

by Michael Hackard

Publication Date June 18, 2026 in Legal Advocacy

Department 12 of the courthouse. End of the hallway. No windows. Fluorescent tubes and cinderblock beige. Dark wood bench. Darker carpet. Stale air.

“All rise.”

We stood. The couple behind me – my clients – rose slowly.

Judge Virga entered. Climbed to his chair. Settled in. Then his voice.

“Good morning.”

Deep. Measured. In that concrete tomb, the most human thing in the room.

The couple sat behind me. This was where they’d lost their house. Same judge. Probably same opposing counsel across the aisle.

“Mr. Hackard. You’re asking the court to reconsider?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

I stood. Behind me, the wife shifted. I walked him through it.

Technical requirements. Acknowledgments. Notarizations. Each citation a brick.

He leaned back slightly. I’d learned that tell as his clerk. He was listening.

For ten minutes I argued. The couple had been defrauded through documents they didn’t understand. The deed was invalid for specific technical reasons. They should get their house back.

Then Virga asked it. “Mr. Hackard, are you saying I was wrong?”

The courtroom went still under the fluorescent hum. The Jesuit teaching I’d carried since St. Ignatius: truth has its own authority. Conscience isn’t optional.

“Yes, Your Honor. Respectfully, I believe you were.”

Virga smiled. Not mockingly. Not dismissively. Respect. The same smile I’d seen as his clerk when I’d done something right.

He leaned back further. Started asking questions. Hard questions. Specific. He’d read every word.

“Show me the statutory language again.”

“Walk me through the acknowledgment requirements.”

“How does this distinguish?”

Twenty minutes. Testing every assertion. Examining every citation. This wasn’t theater.

“Mr. Hackard,” Virga said “Finally, “you’ve convinced me. The court’s earlier ruling was in error. The deed is invalid. The property is returned to your clients.”

Behind me, the wife gasped. The husband sat frozen. Virga had just done something most judges never do: admitted error publicly. No submission to save face. No supplemental briefing to buy time. Immediate correction.

“The court appreciates counsel bringing this error to my attention,” he continued.

“The interests of justice require getting it right, even if that means admitting we got it wrong initially.”

We walked back. The couple was crying now. Both of them. They stopped on the corner where we’d met. They couldn’t stop thanking me.

But what I’d learned wasn’t about my brief. It was about a judge who cared more about getting it right than being right. Someone with power who understood that authority and truth aren’t the same thing.

The building was designed to intimidate. Dark. Window-less. Power. But inside Department 12, that voice saying “Good morning” made you believe justice was possible.

Not power over you. Power for you. If you had the truth.

Thanks for listening, and you can get your copy of Making Room at Amazon today.