Reflecting on Courtroom Observations: Insights into Legal Proceedings

At first when I chose to go to a courtroom proceeding I was slightly nervous and at the same time curious by what is actually done in a courtroom. It was my first time taking a visit to a courtroom; therefore, I didn't know what to expect. Until I went to the courtroom building, my impressions of the courtroom proceedings were from movies or TV shows that I watched along the years where everything looked strict, professional, and there were a lot of smart lawyers. The scene of a court I imagined was that similar to the scenes in Suits where both lawyers a very smart and going at it for their respective clients. My expectations were that of lawyers battling it out in words for who would win the case in the end, that the battle was heated and it would be long like several hours, that the lawyers were charismatic and each statement swayed the jury the way of that lawyer or the other and then the other lawyer would do the same and sway the jury in the way of that lawyer.

When I stood in front of the courtroom building, I had an impression that the building would look like a place that was very stiff, serious, and efficient. When I first entered the building, I got somewhat even more nervous. At one point I wanted to leave the courtroom building, I don't know why, I came there to watch some cases as an observer and not as a person that is involved in any cases such a jury, witness, lawyer, or anything of that sort. While waiting outside the courtroom to start the trial, it seemed to me that people did not notice each other really. There were a lot of people just shuffling around and moving about carrying briefcases big or small and sometimes I even saw some of the people there with a large stacks of paper. All of the people in the building seemed like they were very busy with whatever they were doing or holding like they had to go trial like they were late for it or something. To be honest I was not really surprised with the way the people were. This met my expectations of it being very busy for the courtroom building with many people walking in the hallways.

Waiting for the beginning of the trial where I found that a few other people and I were the only observers of the case, I felt a little anxiety and curiosity for what was going to happen in the court. I could have only imagined what the people who were involved in the case must have felt like. With every passing minute, the level of anxiety in me that I felt decreased, a lot of minor thoughts that I had flowed through my head such as I would not being allowed to go into any one of the rooms or if I make a really loud noise, I would be kicked out of the room immediately. In reality, there were no problems at all and I caused no problems and I could easily attend the case inside the hearing. I looked at the people who were involved in the case and saw that the faces of people who were involved in the process of the case looked like they were probably a little surprised of the audience like they were not expecting anyone to be at that specific case. As soon as I took my seat in the back of the room and at the end of the aisle, my nervousness and anxiety went away and then there was only my curiosity. I felt that nothing that nothing I would expect could happen now that everything has began. I felt a little pleased that I was able to sit at the end of an aisle because at the entry to each of the aisle, people were moving about and shuffling which I found to be quite annoying.

My first impression of the courtroom when I first saw the courtroom was not very positive. I thought that the courtroom was kind of boring to look at, it just felt empty with not much in it. There were no real decorations in the courtroom except for a flag or two of The United States of America that were hung around the room. The color of everything in the room was just brown, from the chairs and desks to the walls. The other different colors that I saw in the courtroom was blue that was the floor and some walls had a white tops and brown bottoms or the other way around. The view of such a boring place felt a little dull to me who was just entering the halls a moment ago feeling a little nervous. When the trial regarding a property dispute started, I started to not pay as much attention to the appearance and looks of the courtroom anymore, I just started to ignore the looks of the place. Now that the case was about to start, I was much more interested in people that were going to participate in the case.

A big surprise that came to me was the appearance and age of the judge that was present, which I thought was very young for the profession of a judge. The image that I have always had in my head was that the judge or any judge really was an elderly person or middle-aged with glasses, a robe, and a wig who is never wrong and very stern with a no BS attitude and also was the most authoritative and intimidating person in the room. I was also surprised to see a clerk who was a young man, who was probably around there mid-twenties in age and appearance. I was waiting for the lawyers of both sides to come up and show or state their defence but the lawyers of both sides didn't show up at all. I was very surprised by the fact that no lawyers were present because I thought that there must be lawyers for both sides at the trial. I see that everyone has always had a lawyer in the movies and tv shows, where the lawyer was hired or a public defender being assigned a case and was stuck with it. And there were no lawyers at this hearing. This was probably my biggest surprise of the whole proceeding.

The trial proceeded very efficiently and ended quickly after only about thirty minutes, which also surprised me because I thought that the court proceeding would last a lot longer than an hour and the people who were involved in court proceedings would fight with each other very seriously and with passion to win as much money or compensation or whatever it was they wanted as possible for themselves. However, both sides of this proceeding did not really have any excessive or outrageous demands and it did not take long for them to state what they wanted either, it seemed to me like both sides came to an agreement of some sort or something before the hearing even began and it was only a formality for legal reasons for the case or trial or hearing to even happen in the first place. I was a bit disappointed about the case because I thought that the trial would be much, much more interesting but it was not and it was a pretty big let down. In fact, the case turned out to be only a both sides voicing their opinions on the topic at hand and what they want from the other person and then finishing their portion or statement. Nothing remotely spectacular, special, or interesting happened during the hearing. I now think it was one of those common types of cases that take place that nothing ended up happening at and everyone’s time is wasted in the end because I have seen some of these cases in movies and TV shows but they never happened a lot in them.

When I was coming out of the courtroom, what I felt was very disappointed and unfulfilled. On the one hand, I was glad that I got that the case out of the way and got a thirty minutes done and now I have experience of what an actual case looked like, and on the other I was kind of disappointed that the case ended in such a boring fashion and the case ended so quickly too and it was really not an interesting experience. At first it seemed to me that like being the profession of a judge could be very, extremely interesting to me, because everyone likes to have authority over every other person in the room, the highest authority. After seeing the case; however, it seemed turned out that being the profession of a judge is not at all as interesting as I thought it was and it was such a bummer, and I can even tell that at some points in the case the judge was bored, distracted, and not caring or so it would seem. The thought of being a judge seemed to me like the job would be so boring and dull for a judge who has to go through such similar hearings and cases for several times a day and for several days a week. I thought that if I went to any following, subsequent cases of this type where there is nothing happening, I would leave the room without any new experiences or knowledge because all these cases probably all look, sound, and feel very the same as each other.

However, I do not regret my visit to the court case because now that I have the experience of more or less what a real case looks like I can avoid the boring cases where nothing spectacular, special, or interesting happens. I do; however have my expectations shattered and now know that cases can be boring, short, and with no real substance or meaning to them at all. The level of presentation was not very high and I would rate this case a four out of ten.