The Week in Review

This week started out so nice and relaxful, but certainly didn't stay that way, as evidenced by my lack of posting. Tuesday I had both my afternoon class, and my evening class (last one!), and 2 meetings in between! Wednesday I worked in the morning, and began some preliminary research for my final paper in the afternoon and evening.

Thursday at work was my big monthly court day (CVB calendar). A small bench trial was supposed to wrap up the morning. Things began at 9am, but SO many people showed up that they did not even finish checking in with the court clerk until after 10:30! When the judge got started shortly afterwards, she said that she had an appointment with the dean of a law school at 11:15, so she stayed until then, and after that, one of the judges who used to be a magistrate judge, but earlier this year became a regular District Court judge, came in to finish up. To say this day was like a circus is really no exaggeration. So many people came and everyone had their own story and excuse for whatever they had done. Some I'd believe, most I didn't.

Anyway, the second judge was much more efficient in how he handled it. As he called each case, he would listen to each person tell their story, declare their fine, and without ending his sentence or taking a breath, ask when they were going to pay it. I was most impressed by the speed at which he moved things along. Unfortunately, when noon arrived, the bench trial had not yet been started, though it was the only thing remaining. The judge then declared that another judge, my third for the day, would have the trial at 1:15pm in a different courtroom.

Normally I have Community Property on Thursday afternoons at 1:30pm. I was the one assigned to this trial though, so it's not like I could have just left. Even though it was for a simple violation, I was the one who prepared the opening, closing, questions, and exhibits. I was the only one who had talked to our witness. So, even though I hate missing classes, I knew I didn't really have a choice here. Plus I'll take a trial over a class any day.

After having lunch and reviewing my file, I got back up to the courtroom. The judge called us forward and had my witness and I at the podium with the defendant sitting at the defense table. The judge then explained that he wasn't going to have questioning like a normal trial, but allow both the government (ME!) and the defendant give a narrative of what transpired, and then allow each of us to question the other. So mentally, I threw out all the questions I was going to ask and started to formulate my story. The judge continued by telling the defendant that if he was going to say that he did it, but had some reason or excuse, he needed to plead guilty, which would mean no trial. The defendant had been very stubborn previously, both in court last month and when questioned by the agent. He had been adamant about wanting a trial.

I was there, standing at the podium, with my file, with all my notes, statements, questions, and exhibits. I was SO ready to go. I had missed my class for this. The defendant says, "Well, I did it, but I have an excuse......". The judge stopped him and told him that he could not tell him the reason unless he was going to plead guilty. The defendant paused, and then said he would plead guilty. UGH! Freaking time-wasting defendants!

The judge had the defendant give his explanation, and then asked the government for our side, before giving him his sentence (fine). This guy could have easily said and done all of this in the morning session. What a pain! All of this and I didn't even get a second trial under my belt for it! As it stands now, however, I have 6 trials in January and one next month. I'm sure that some of the January ones will be postponed or have a change of plea, but it looks like I'll get my second (third, and maybe more) trials soon enough.

After all of this, by the time I got home and changed, I would have missed half of my afternoon class, but since the professor normally lets us our somewhat early, I didn't think it would be worth it to go for 30-60 minutes of class. Of course, I did go to school later for Wills & Trusts. Normally, I hate Thursday evening classes. I'm tired and just do not want to be sitting through a class. But we ended up doing a mock will mediation that actually was a lot of fun, PLUS, we finished and were out of there before 8:30!

Yesterday was another long day. I worked 8-12 in the morning, and was only able to accomplish the bare minimum of follow-up from Thursday's court appearance. I have a brief due by the end of the day on Monday (thankfully, I will have the full 8 hours to work on it), and had hoped to start on it yesterday, but did not do more than a preliminary couple searches.

I then had to take my son to a doctor appointment for a longstanding medical issue. Because this doctor is a specialist, it seems the wait to see her is always a minimum of an hour. I've never had it this bad though- we were there for a total of 2 and a half hours! Then, as I thought we were leaving, the assistant told me that we needed to go to the lab, right then, for some tests. I explained I had an appointment and wouldn't be able to do that. Ok, just something else I'll need to do next week.

After that, I had to race home, change, get out to school to set up for the event I planned and coordinated for Delta Theta Phi, the law fraternity I'm a member of and where I'm serving as the Alumni Committee Co-Chairman. I had met one of our alumni in court a few weeks ago, and asked him if he would come and speak to us for one of our guest lectures. Who can say no to me??? ; ) The lecture went extremely well. Our speaker was helpful and humorous, and I think he was a great contact for us to make.

When I got home at 9:30, I had to do laundry and start picking up around the house since we had a showing this afternoon. I finished this morning, and then we had to vacate for awhile. Since more than half the day was already wasted, I decided I would just spend all of Sunday working on my paper, and took the rest of the day off, going to a cat show with my son.

Tomorrow I really need to get some serious work done on my paper. I'm anticipating next weekend to non-productive, with Thanksgiving, my sister being in town, and a certain prospective home buyer who is trying to schedule a time to see our home (apparently a nationally known real estate mogul has a real estate lawyer who will be relocating here to handle a certain golf course and surrounding development, should it come to fruition). The following weekend will be devoted to studying for midterms, so tomorrow is when I need to get a lot of that paper done.

So yeah, that's the summary of my week.