Court versus Freelancing

Okay, so up here in D.C., they do not have appointed officials for each judge. They are all floaters. And let's just be honest...court is a little on the crazy side.

I had to sit in on three court trials during my training period.

The first one, we got there an hour early, sat in waiting for the case for 30 minutes, and the actual session was 50 seconds. They asked for a motion to continue at a later date. The attorneys did not want a transcript, but you get a sitting fee for going up there anyway. No waste in time, as far as I'm concerned. It actually works out in your favor.

The second one was AWESOME! I got to sit in on a bench trial with this merit reporter that was amazing. It didn't start off so hot, though. We were told 10 a.m. and it was actually 9 a.m. Not the firm's fault, but the reporter that was doing the first day's job failed to relay the new start time to the firm. She called in sick for day two of the trial, so the firm had to get a replacement. So, we got there an hour late, which was awkward. The judge was all fussy about having the reporter set up in .2 seconds, and this girl had her machine plus three other bags. Lots to carry in, but man was she impressive. She had two, count them, two laptops. They were both sitting on a laptop cooler fan thingy, so they were upright. She had one for her research and email only, the other only for her software. At breaks, she would transfer her Eclipse file to a thumb drive and send it on the other computer through email to her scopist at home. By lunch, they were working on the first four hours of the trial. Talk about a production machine. WOW! She was pretty incredible and ohmigoodness, was she so sweet and helpful. I went to lunch with her to pick her brain, and she was so supportive of me. She gave me her number and also invited me to go to the mid-year conference with her in Boston so I could meet some of her reporter friends. I mean, seriously, I've never really understood the "family atmosphere" of a professional organization. So far, I have yet to meet another reporter that didn't want me to succeed and have a wonderful life. I'm so lucky to have run across that cheesy television commercial to point me to school.

The third meeting was in a different court house. I went up there and sat in the wrong room for about 30 minutes until the firm called me and told me that the reporter had called in and said that they changed the room number. LOL, rookie mistake. If the room is empty, go find someone. I got over there just in time to hear a horrible sexual assault case, right before another 20 second motion to continue. Hey, life is good. LOL...

Note to self: The bailiff is your friend. Get to know them and be friends with them. They'll let you in early to set up.

Also, set up early and go sit down because the judge will call each case out and see how long they think it will take, then he will prioritize, time wise, and call the cases by his timeline. He will call each case out and the attorney's will go up to the tables, and you will follow. Pretty simple. But get there fast, because the judge doesn't wait very long. I say at least have your backup recorder in your hand and on when he calls the name out, so if you miss something he says before you can get up to table where your equipment is, you will have it recorded.