I'm in Trial!

Ok, how cool is it to be able to say that? And I was kept in court last night until 6pm!

My trial was set to start at 10am yesterday. However, I logged into the court's website when I woke up, just to check and see if anything had been filed since Friday. I wasn't expected anything, but with this defendant, you can never be sure of anything. I was shocked to see that 10:30pm on Monday (a court holiday), the defendant had filed to substitute an attorney to represent him (instead of representing himself), and that the attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case.

I had no idea what was going to happen because I thought the judge could easily continue this case once again to give the new attorney time to prepare for trial. I didn't think it likely the motion for dismissal would be granted, but I was doubting I'd actually have trial yesterday. The judge, however, would have none of the defendant's shenanigans and did not delay the trial. The new attorney opted to sit in as "co-counsel", not wanting to commit malpractice by proceeding without being fully prepared.

It was so cool- here I was in this gorgeous courthouse, in a beautiful 7th floor courtroom (not "lowly" 6 floor magistrate courtroom- lol!), giving my opening statement. As the day continued on, my boss and I took turns with our witnesses- I had 8, he had 5. He has to finish on his last one this morning before we rest and the defendant begins. I have no idea what to expect from him, other than to know it is likely to be long- he loves to talk!

I'll also be doing the closing, whenever we get to that. Each side was given 7 hours to present its case, and we've only used 3 hours of our time so far (defense has used a bit over 2). I suppose we could finish today, but I kinda think it will be tomorrow before we're done. I think I'd prefer that, just so I can go in completely fresh and focused, instead of having to do the closing after a long day of testimony. Either way, I am totally enjoying this! It just feels so normal to be doing this- I love that I'm not bit nervous about it too.

Well, I gotta run. My trial resumes in about 2 hours!~