Musar for Bava Kamma 69:10

The requirement in (18,21) of יראי אלוקים, refers to the third of the qualities a judge must possess, namely that he must not be dogmatic in his approach. We have a tradition that under normal circumstances, i.e. חזקה, a debtor does not repay a loan before a due date [especially since he has nothing to gain, not paying interest on the loan. Ed.]. A case may come before the judge when the debtor claims to have prepaid, the judge believes him, but the debtor is unable to prove his claim. Another situation that may involve the יראי אלוקים requirement may be one when the accepted practice of המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה, that he who wants to be paid from his fellow man must produce proof, cannot be applied, since the nature of the case makes it unlikely that the claimant has proof. In either case, if the judge is convinced of the honesty of the litigant, the Torah tells him to act like אלוקים, i.e. G–d who is omniscient. He may have to explain why he hands down a verdict without the necessary legal requirements having been met. This is one aspect of what is called הוראת שעה, emergency situation. This is what king Yehoshaphat had in mind in Chronicles II 19,6, when he assured the judges that G–d was with them, i.e. would assist them in arriving at a true verdict. Under such circumstances it is, of course, even more important for the judge to explain the reason he handed down a certain verdict.