Today David and I hit the D.C. District Court. I was awfully, terribly, horribly late -- but also lucky, which occasionally makes up for the rest (but which is not recommended as a backup plan!). The trial we were covering was moved two hours later! As we waited, David started working on another transcript with his handy-dandy laptop, a walking example of how having your stuff on a laptop with you can allow you to make effective use of unexpected delays.
A pleasant surprise was running into one of our school's graduates who is now working as a reporter for David's firm. Apparently everything is going well for her -- always nice to hear!
The trial was in the same courthouse where I had done my previous court work, but was on a different floor. Whereas before I sat in on a bench trial, this time there was actually a jury present. In order to be out of the way, I sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from the jury, which meant that I was on the opposite side from the witness, as well.
There were two witnesses, the second of whom was particularly soft-spoken. However, the greatest problem I had was hearing the judge! Often, his words were swallowed, particularly as he looked in the other direction from where I was sitting to address the witness or the attorney standing near the witness.
David was only scheduled to cover the morning session, so when they broke for lunch, David and I packed up. As we did, David called me over to take a lesson at the tape that he was able to make from plugging his tape recorder into the court's sound system. I'm sure my face was a comical site as I listened and heard everything with crystal-clarity. Wow!
Lessons Learned:Adequate time to get where your going is never that (or at least not often enough to count on).
Learn the resources available -- for example, using the court's sound system to make a backup tape (or, using an earlier example, getting backups from a videographer, if there's going to be one).
Would you like to go to the next internship experience or return to the main page of the Court Reporting Students' Online Support Center?