Generally human essence comprises a huge number of facets which shape our verbal and non-verbal behaviour. As an explicit form of social behaviour, speech is largely based on a number of indispensable elements which altogether shape the general framework of the given communicative context. The aim of the present paper is to discuss one of the ingredients of the communicative context – the speakers' mental world; it is mainly devoted to the analysis of emotional memory and its impact on interpersonal relations. The speakers' past emotional experience is also part of mutually shared background knowledge which determines their choice of language data on a particular occasion of speech event. To ensure a better understanding of the multifaceted nature of emotions, the problem will be reviewed from the pragmatic perspective, taking the essence of the supreme cognitive processes into account. The role of emotional background knowledge alongside with verbal and non-verbal means of manifesting emotions will be studied on the main judicial actors. The illustrating examples represent extracts taken from crime fiction and in particular from Mark Gimenez's The Colour of Law.