Calendar Call Reflection

On October 28, 2015, in the capital court of the Harris County Criminal Courts at Law, Judge Mark Kent Ellis, who was working on a murder case that happened in late 2013. My first experience when I had entered the court building was through the security area where I had to take all my belongings and place it in a bin before going through the metal detector. After that, I went to the 20th floor where there were some cases that were scheduled to begin. I entered one of the courtrooms and sat down with other students and waited for the attorneys and their clients to enter the courtroom along with Judge Ellis. Around 9:30 AM, Hon. Judge Mark Kent Ellis entered and the case began to take place. Unlike the broadcast that I had seen online, there was no introduction about the case, rather the attorney for the plaintiff started to ask the witness or the plaintiff about the case. The murder case number was not mentioned, but it was between Johnathan Sanchez, the defendant, versus the Plaintiff who was the witness of the case that his name was not

On March 24, at approximately 9:00 a.m., as court proceedings generally begin at this time, a fellow colleague and I attended the Sacramento County Courthouse to observe a California Superior Court proceeding for one public, criminal law, trial court case. As previously mentioned in class, a superior court is a state/federal "lower court" designed to hear and decide on any civil or criminal case in its jurisdiction, which can be general or original. For instance, the superior court located in the Sacramento county is one of many trial level courts in the state of California allowed to adjudicate, or charge, possibly bring to trial, convict, and sentence criminals, from within its district. The Sacramento County

I scheduled my client to come in on a Thursday. Unfortunately, my client did not show up to his interview and I had to reschedule. My client has health problems and his wife depends on him for helping her through treatments and appointments relating to her breast cancer. In addition, he is unemployed and works odd jobs as a mechanic and was unsure what day or time he was able to come in, however, he would let me know when he would be available. I assured him that I would call every day until the hearing to see if he would be able to partake in the

CM normally meets with the client every Wednesday for a face to face meeting. Client reported this week she was unable to meet for face to face because she was scheduled to work.

On Wednesday, April 6, I attended a court hearing at the Sonoma County Superior Court. At 8:15am I sat out in front of court room one, many of the people there were reading this paper out on the front of the court room which was the criminal calendar. Which sets the time and date to be called to in court. I entered court room one, which were all felony trials that were taking place. We all took our seats and sat down before the honor of Robert M. Laforge. To the right in front of me were the people who were being prosecuted, eight of them were males and two were females. Some of them had the same attorney who appointed to act for them in front of the judge. While in the court room I noticed many of their family members, or people whom they might have known in the court sitting beside me. First we had the arraignment which is when each of the criminals came before the court and the judge read out the criminal charges that were against them. Each of the defendants had a counsel appointed to them. After having read the charges to the defendant, a court appearance date was set, in which most of them were a preliminary hearing because most of the charges against the criminal were felonies. Many of the cases that were going out had to schedule for a preliminary trial which is a trial before a trial to see if the defendant is guilty or not guilty, and if there is even enough evidence to actually hold a trial. Most of the cases I observed were in the case of assault, in which one

The majority of my observation involved Justice Greller and his adjudication duties, which included hearing plea bargains, hearing motions, sentencing defendants, and conducting the various types of court hearings. The next category is negotiation, in which the judge attempts to resolve cases without formal adjudication by encouraging the parties to reach settlements. The courtroom workgroup consists of the Prosecutor, Defense Attorney, Judge and Probation officer. During my internship I was able to sit in on the court conferences between the courtroom work group and observe how they come to agreements through negotiation. A great number of cases are decided through settlements before they even reach trial. In criminal cases this often means that the case will be resolved by a plea bargain before it has to go to trial. The third category is the administration aspect of the job. In trial courtrooms as was the one I observed in, the individual judges and their staffs largely run their own courtroom. This administrative work entails the paperwork and scheduling of the cases brought before the court.” (Baum, 2013). The criminal calendar dictates what cases are on the docket for the day and what court proceedings will be taking place.

The United States Courts are played by different selected people that operate the entire courts. Courts are in place to handle disputes between parties, that can be civil, criminal, family, and/or traffic. In order for the courts to be able to operate, they must employee staff to help the function of the cases. In fact, the players of the courts are like the players of the doctor’s office. This analysis will discuss the results of an interview conducted with a prosecutor, defense attorney, and a judge, it will go over the results, and the procedural law in the time span as an inmate.

Data: Pt.'s case transffered to this writer this date. An individual session was scheduled for treatment plan review, and to discuss any concerns regarding CD treatment. Pt. is a no call; no show for his scheduled individual session.

On Friday, February 10th, 2017 I visited the King County Courthouse in Seattle to fulfill the requirements of the Visit to the Court Assignment. During my visit, I observed the court proceedings for two hours. Also, during this time I got familiar with the courthouse and observed three separate cases. Each case presented a different issue for the judge and resulted in different judgements.

The arraignment isn't only for Bail determination. The litigant will likewise find when their case will be listened. This date and its closeness or separation from the current date tells the respondent and legal advisor the amount time the customer will need to use in prison, or at home. Amid this time they will both plan for the date ahead. All customers would like the chance to get a sensible Bail sum with the guarantee that, the length of they give installment they can be discharged all alone recognizance just to report over to court on their

Case filings have doubled in the past 7 years, and the court is utilizing a combination of the individual and master calendar systems. Due to increased caseload and challenges to find innovative methods to prevent court backlogs, the judiciary had to reevaluate their current system and find better ways to dispose cases within scheduled time. Besides the issue of overload cases and backlogs, the court is also understaffed in judges which caused criminal cases that usually takes 1 month to reach final disposition now takes 2 to 3

I was able to witness series of cases in Brampton court located at 7755 Hurontario Street, Brampton, ON. Initially, I was suppose to attend court dates to witness Acorn to Oak lawyer’s client on November 4th and 5th , 2015, but due to my professional class in school, I missed the 4th of November date. However, I was able to meet up with the agency lawyer on the second day, and then debrief how the case went day before.

Many defendes do not have enough time – sometimes only minutes per case – they are unable to conduct many of the critical tasks necessary to provide quality defense, including interviewing clients and witnesses, conducting legal research, writing motions, accessing and preparing experts, and generally preparing to represent their clients at pretrial hearings, trials and sentencing hearings. Meeting with a client soon after arrest can have a significant impact on the ability to conduct an investigation and prepare a defense, including being able to find defense witnesses and evidence. A lack of confidential space can compound this problem, especially for clients who are incarcerated before trial. Proper resources and adequate time may not guarantee

During the days I went to court in the morning I found that they read the docket out loud. When the defendant heard their name they would have to respond with “Guilty, No Guilty, or Guilty with An Explanation.” This process took a while, especially at High Point Court one Friday there were around 600 people on the docket that day. It took the attorney’s about an hour to read off the names of the people with some standing in the hallway. Other days when I went to court I found that reading the docket took time from the attorney’s meeting with their clients. At one time the judge had to go out to the courtroom beside the one I was in to get a defendant who had cases two different courtrooms. In Greensboro, during a trial when the defendant was giving her testimony, a woman was going around the courtroom getting people who were on the docket to sit in the front. While I thought the court would be silent and have all your attention on one specific thing that was going on their was a lot of movement with the woman trying

On October 31st, I went to the Richard J. Daley Courthouse to listen to a court hearing. This was my first time being inside a court room and finding my way around was a bit of a struggle. I made my way to the 17th floor where I was given different room numbers to observe different hearings. My only experiences in observing courtroom proceedings were from a majority of the typical daytime television shows. Clearly, I came in with some expectations on the structure of the proceedings were going to be held. To my surprise, I found out that it was not anything like the television shows. It was a little bit more chaotic then I expected. Both parties were still in the process of making sure everything was set up and asked for more time. The hearings were supposed to start at 9:30, but ended up starting around 10 o’clock. The jury was told that there was a “technical delay.”