Court reporting

Now I know I've neglected my blog a little, I apologise, but I'm here now, so hooray!

Some of you may know, as I have mentioned it in my first post, that I am a journalism student; and on Friday I went to my first ever court reporting job. It wasn't exactly a job but it was for a college assessment, I guess it falls into the same category. 

I sat in on three very different court cases and it's safe to say, I left that court feeling brilliant. I'm not too sure if I can say exactly what the cases were, but the first was a drug case and I was well excited to report on it. 

I sat at the front with my cute notebook and pen, ready to write down all the heavy things that going to go on. Only to be left extremely confused and mildly disappointed ten-fifteen minutes later as the man was granted bail and they scheduled another hearing...um?

My friends and I left during the second case, as we had absolutely no clue as to what the heck was going on. All we know is that the Accused was very agitated and seemed nervous. Can't really make a story out of that. 

Now the third case was really something. I don't think I can post my report, but I will say this, it was one of the most intense situations I have ever experienced...ever!

A drunk driver ran a red light and collided with another car, instantly killing the driver of the other vehicle. 

You watch these things in movies and TV shows, you read about these kind of tragedies in the newspaper and hear about them on the news, but to actually sit there, in a court room, with a judge and see the Accused crying and the victim's family trying so hard to keep it together and just want some justice to be done, is a whole different playing field. 

The experience literally put a lot of things in perspective for me, emotionally especially. All I could think about was "how are her family going to cope with her loss?", "how is this man going to continue on with his life, with full knowledge that he's taken a mother away from her children, taken a wife away from her husband as a result from his own stupidity?". 

It was a profoundly straight forward case, everyone in the room knew where his sentencing was going. It was confronting, to say the least. I did actually shed a few tears. 

I'm not too sure about anyone else, but after I walked out of that court room, I felt the most absolute sympathy for the victim's family,  sad for the Accused as anyone could see how guilty he felt for what he did, happy that I could make a fairly decent report and much more appreciative of the time I have with my mother. 

Definitely one of the best experiences of my life, I think its safe to say I gained a lot of insight into a lot of diverse situations. Downing Centre Court is an open court, meaning anyone can watch any case, unless its a closed case, then its out of bounds. I recommend everyone to sit and watch a court case unfold, at least once. It's definitely informative and you might even gain a new love for law. 

xx