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To: Salvation

My respect for lawyers and judges went way up when my daughter was in the middle school ‘Mock Trial’ program. The middle schoolers put on a make-believe trial as prosecutors and defense lawyers. The real judges and lawyers donated their time to oversee the program.


5 posted on 10/22/2019 10:27:30 AM PDT by olepap
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To: olepap

I have served three tours of jury duty on our Circuit Court which see’s the worst of the worst. In those tours I have served on probably a good dozen juries, everything from civil trials, to first degree assault, drugs, to fist degree murder.

I sat through two judges, one of which was a convicted drunk driver in a neighboring state. Despite this he ran a pretty tight ship in the court room. He took care of his jurors, didn’t let the lawyers run the show and if he screwed up he admitted it(me and another juror noted a discrepancy on his instructions, sent a note to him and he declared a mistrial on his mistake).

The other judge I like but he lets the lawyers run the show and ignores his jurors. During one murder trial we took two weeks to seat the jury with us showing up at 9:00am and getting home at 7:00pm. The lawyers would approach the bench, we would be sent out for a fifteen minute break which were usually two hrs, return, ask a question, a lawyer would ask to approach and out we would go again for fifteen minutes, actually another two hours. The entire jury pool was livid at the judge, the prosecutors and especially the defense attorneys, seething hate and contempt would be an apt description at the way they felt towards the court because of the way we were treated by all parties involved.

We had one trial that started late because of the lawyers, he wouldn’t stop for lunch and by 1:30 one of the jurors a diabetic summoned the bailiff and said I have to eat something soon I’m a diabetic. He handed her candy and we still sat another thirty minutes.

Of all those cases there were two attorneys worth anything. One was the Commonwealth’s attorney and another was from out of town. The rest were uninterested, took cases they knew they would lose but their clients paid. One put his client on trial for murder on the stand, it was a massacre and he lied himself along with the evidence into a thirty yr sentence.

Good judges and lawyers are few and far between...


8 posted on 10/22/2019 11:15:20 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: olepap
Back in High School I was picked to go to the American Legion's "Boys State." We ran a mock state government. I ran for election and lost, so I had to find something to do. I decided I'd be a lawyer. I argued one case (my client won), but I really had no interest in the law as a career. Still, it was interesting,and gave me an appreciation of what an attorney does for a client. I worked with JAGs while in the Air Force, and served on a Court Martial, but have had little to do with lawyers since then, except for things like wills and real estate. I was glad to have legal help with the estate when my first wife died. If you and your spouse don't have wills,don't delay any longer in getting a will written.
9 posted on 10/22/2019 1:26:57 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney (Colonel (Retired) USAF.)
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