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My relationship with the courthouse staff was certainly cordial, but that isn't the case with ALL lawyers. There are lawyers that the clerks hate to see coming, because they know they're going to act like jerks (and we all know who they are. They act like jerks to other lawyers, too.)

While I had an "inside view", my husband most definitely did not. The judges and clerks don't know who you're married to (metro Atlanta is a BIG jurisdiction, and I don't think anybody at the courthouse ever met my husband in my company, and our last names are different.) He never had a problem getting carried over to the next term, just a phone call was enough.

Of course, part of the problem IS perspective. In a large county, the staff are just covered up with work, and they probably process hundreds of jurors in a morning . . . say you have 12 superior court judges, and maybe half of them have a trial calendar on any given Monday -- you have to have two pools of 24 for civil trials, and FOUR pools for criminal (lots more strikes for the defendant), let alone the high profile murder trials where they may get through eight or more pools because people have formed opinions about the case (it's not that a juror KNOWS about the case, it's whether they've made up their minds and can't let it go).

The clerks are people too, and having to move hundreds of people in and out of the courtrooms is tiresome work. When somebody is reasonably polite and kind to them . . . no problem. But when somebody says "f*** your jury b****" or words to that effect, it's bound to annoy them.

And thanks for skipping the lawyer jokes . . . I promise I've heard them all. I even tell them sometimes . . . have you heard the one about the doctor and the priest and the lawyer paddling in the life raft through shark infested waters? :-D

The clerks are people too, and having to move hundreds of people in and out of the courtrooms is tiresome work.

Certainly there are exceptions. There must be one nice courthouse employee somewhere.

In reply to your comment, their job is no different than any number of retail jobs I have worked. I must be nice to each and every person that comes in no matter how tiresome. Especially the ones that are in a bad mood.

It should be no different for the courthouse employees. But of course it is, as your making excusese for them shows.

And one of the reasons it is different for them is because the courthouse employees know the judge will throw the the &%#$@%$#@'s in jail if they get out of line.