I've only been to court 3 times just to pay off a traffic ticket and jury duty, but has anyone ever been to court either to watch a trial or actually be in one? (hopefully not as the defendant )

One of my female coworkers got a speeding ticket a while ago that she knows she didn't deserve and she and her husband are going to court tomorrow to fight it. I'll be accompanying them since I'm good friends with them and the female coworker is my subordinate. When I got my first traffic ticket, I folded under the pressure and paid a whopping $200 to get it off my record. I really want to see if we can truly fight the system and win.

We're confident since we have alot of good decisive evidence. My coworker and her husband were heading home from the mall one day on the freeway and noticed a cop was following them. She was only driving around 60-65mph while everyone else was going 70+. My coworker does drive a red sports car so she would obviously stand out more. Her husband had a digital camcorder with him (he loves to record random stuff for no reason) so he decided to record the speedometer as soon as the cop began to follow them just in case. I know she always drives safely so I believe her. The cop pulled her over saying she went at least over 70 and he didn't even have a radar gun on him. I'm pretty sure he wanted to meet his quota and chose my coworker's red car to do so.

Most cops don't even bother to appear for these minor court hearings about traffic tickets, but here in California, they show up the majority of the time because they have nothing better to do. We're expecting that the cop will come tomorrow, but if he doesn't show up, we win the case by default. We've already printed out all the necessary photos with the proper timestamps and we even have the camera footage to prove it.

I'm probably gonna be a dork and play PW music in my head during the trial tomorrow. My coworker and her husband haven't played PW yet since they're avid WoW players, but maybe this is a good time to introduce them to the series.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out tomorrow.

So has anyone ever been to court?

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Well, I saw part of a murder trial once. Just saw it, didn't participate, or anything.

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To tell you the truth, court sessions in real life are boring and usually last like 10-30 minutes.

They just use the evidence they have and get it over with.

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Nope, but I've been called for jury duty.

I couldn't make it because it interfered with my college schedule.

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No, never. Thank Gawd.

But I always thought, if I was put up on trial for something, all those hours spent playing Phoenix Wright might come in handy.

Y'know, if I was losing the case, I'd gradually become more and more frantic, in my appearance, and spray water onto my face, to resemble the guilty sweats. I've been in trouble with the law now and then, but nothing ever so serious as to merit a court appearance.

I'm a good boy. Honest.

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I've seen sentencing trials and the closing statements of a spousal abuse trial.

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Not yet but I chose to work there for my Work Expirience which will be in September.

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Yes I went to court as an laywer assistant while my internship.

The judge in one trial was funny. He had a voice recorder and he repeated everything in a political correct way into it. It was interesting to hear what he said... and weird.

(i am not allowed to talk about the trial itself)

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I did in my Law 20 class in high school back home. They have-or they had, I'm not sure if it's still going on now-an annual Law Day where the public could go to the courthouse and watch a mock trial. Our Law class did; it was fun, informative and I enjoyed it. :)

Other than that, no.

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I watched my mom who's a divorce attourney in Court.

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Once, because I neglected to pay a speeding ticket on time. But that's it.

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I just came back from court. It was actually quite interesting, but yeah, nothing like the PW world.

My coworker, her husband, and I all arrived at court pretty early dressed up nicely in our work clothes. During our wait in the lobby, I pulled out my DS and let my coworker's husband play through the entire first case of PW. He seemed to really enjoy it and may even consider getting a DS in the future.

After a while, we were all called into the courtroom and there was only 2 baliffs, a judge, and maybe 3 people in the audience from the previous trial that went on. Sadly, the officer that gave my coworker the ticket actually showed up and the judge called the trial to begin.

There were no attorneys or prosecutors since it was just a minor traffic case. My coworker pleaded not guilty and gave her testimony. She said that she and her husband were coming home from the mall on the freeway. She was going exactly the speed limit and noticed the cop following her. Since her husband had a digital camera on him at the time, he recorded footage of the actual speedometer as the cop was following them. After that the cop pulled her over and issued her a ticket for speeding. However, he didn't exactly have his radar gun at the time and pulled her over because he assumed that she was speeding. She even had the evidence to prove that she was not speeding before she was pulled over.

She showed the judge the printed out pictures with the proper timestamps and the camera footage. The judge seemed pretty convinced about it and let the officer give out his testimony.

The officer said that he saw my coworker's car go over speed limit on the freeway. He didn't have his radar gun at the time and he didn't really need it to know that she was speeding. He also accused her of doctoring the footage and that she could have been speeding before the camera footage was taken. Her husband and I were like "crap"

The officer sounded really sure of himself and pretty confident. I was sure that my coworker was gonna lose the case at this point. However...

The judge asked why the cop didn't have his radar gun at the time. The officer said it was broken and the judge asked why didn't he wait to get it fixed. The officer said that regardless of the radar gun being broken or not, he still had to be on duty that day and that he knows a car speeding when he sees one. Then the judge said he shouldn't have been pulling cars over without his radar gun and it was very negligent and unfair of him.



So the officer became a bit flustered and the judge said that the evidence was good enough to prove that my coworker wasn't speeding. The judge even said that even if he is an officer of the law, his word cannot be taken as truth without evidence. So the judge declared my coworker..



My coworker was going to have the ticket off her record and will receive the refund for the ticket fee.

Basically the judge did the majority of the work for us and even called the officer on all his bs. I was pretty sure after the officer's testimony, we were sunk, but it looks like the judge made the right decision in the end. Of course, I had all the right PW tunes playing in my head throughout the trial although nobody said any "objections".

I told my coworker to take the day off and that I'll cover for her. She's definitely earned it. Even though it was such a minor case, I was on my toes most of the time. Maybe the next time I ever get another traffic violation, I'll consider fighting it after what I saw today. So I guess the justice system isn't so bad after all.

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Hell, if the guy didn't have his radar gun, he should have been there to intercept other crimes since he should have known he couldn't interfere with speeders without proof.

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Ha, when the judge called him on his negligence I wouldve so turned up some "cornered" on the DS. And then get glared at and asked to leave the courtroom.

yeah i wen to a prelim once. fun ^^

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So, basically, the judge was smarter than the Judge in PW?

: What's this "radar gun"? Some sort of futuristic sidearm, perhaps?

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I've been in one for Mock Trial class, but nothing was happening. It was more or less a tour.

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This judge even did all the work for us. Phoenix's job would be easier if the judge would help a bit.

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Glad to hear that your co-workee got off. I only attended jury duty so I can't really say anything about that. But I have prepared Evidence though for a trail, mostly just records and paper work on one of our tenants, but before we can send the guy a summons, he just bargained to leave the property imediately and pay the rent that he owed without taking it to court.

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I would love to go to court. But I haven't been a witness to anything... And I don't belive I've broke the law.

I realllly reallly want to see a case once. I know that you can get some service hours or job experiance from working in a court of justice, so maybe when I get a car and a license I'll go and see a court case.

But I'll still keep my eyes open, just in case I see a crime. I've always wanted to be a witness ::blames GS/PW::

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*waits for Holy Hell and his extensive Crime list*

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Not personally.

But my dad's friends with two Barristers (attorneys, I_R in UK) who are apperently v. well known in the feild. They're married. And if any of you ever go to london, on baker street, since one of them's one of the chairs for the Sherlock Holmes fan thingy she got it put up.

Anyway the husband got acused of sexual assult (LIE, he's way to sweet, and is a gentleman. I mean it, your sterotypical gentleman) so he defend himself.

Won hands down. WOOT!

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Well I actually interned under a judge so yeah I've seen court proceedings, and while they aren't as energetic or hotblooded as Phoenix's... They were still interesting to watch.

:(

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I am about to sue some people for defaming me, that'll be my first time

I have this weird desire to be a witness for something sometime XD

I've never been to court myself, but both my parents have had jury duty and my uncle is a lawyer...

Apparently my mom had a lot of small, easy cases, but my dad had one case that was a huge suit of mail fraud that took a long time to finish...and thus he hates jury duty. lol.

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Me and my roommate attended a tribunal hearing once, to back up our landlord in getting our insane neighbours evicted. Tribunals are just held in a City Hall boardroom before one councilman, they're really not dramatic at all. Especially since the trial was theoretically scheduled for nine AM and our case hadn't been called yet when I had to leave for work at four PM. Boring is an understatement, srsly. But that's what video games are for! I was working on Turnabout Goodbyes at the time and got a laugh out of the irony, and our landlord claimed me and Roomiepants were having "too much fun" when we started Pictochatting and frantically trying to stifle our giggles.

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I... I went. Today. My back hurts from all the filing stuff I had to do. >.>

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Once, for Year 10 Work Experience. I worked at a solicitors and went to court with a lawyer who was defending a racist alcoholic who drunk drove.

P.S. I'm "Paki" so you could guess what happened. Jebus!

EDIT: Yeah, I had to do a lot of filing too and it certainly wasn't fun. >_<

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Nope. Have given a written statement but never had to appear.

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