The Litany

I'm heading over to the courthouse to pick up my first case(s) soon. This means I called in last night to say I wanted to pick up cases and left my D.C. Bar number. Yeah, I have a Bar card now! It's a student practice card, but still—the Bar number will get me into the jail and allow me to represent clients (w/supervision), so it's still pretty cool.

Anyway, now that I've called in, I head to court to learn who my client(s) will be, pick up their pre-sentence assessments (PSAs), then head to the cellblock to talk to them about how we're going to try to get them out of there. After that, I'll make calls to verify information the clients have given me (if necessary), see if the drug unit has completed testing a urine sample for my clients, try to talk to the clients' probation officer(s), if they have them, to see if the PO is going to recommend a hold for any reason. Finally, I'll run my client(s) records and, if there's time, verify that they are correct by pulling the relevant case jackets for any prior convictions.

All that is to prepare for arraignment where I'll stand beside my client in front of the judge and recite the following litany:

Good morning, your Honor, Mr. Imbroglio from D.C. Law Students in Court, here with my supervisor, Mr. Supervisor, on behalf of Mr. Client. On behalf of Mr. Client, we waive a formal reading, enter a plea of not guilty, assert Mr. Client's 5th and 6th Amendment rights to counsel in this and all other matters, and request a speedy trial.

After that the prosecutor will probably ask the judge to hold Mr. Client, in which case I'll get a “Gerstein”—a statement of probable cause to justify such a hold as required by Gerstein v. Pugh. If at all possible I'll argue that the Gerstein does not constitute probable cause and that the court should release Mr. Client on his own recognizance. If the prosecutor does not ask for a hold or does ask but loses the argument, he or she will probably then ask for conditions of release such as stay-away orders (client must stay away from anyone involved in alleged crime and from the place where the crime took place or where client was picked up), drug testing, etc. If all goes well, I'll leave the courtroom with my clients and have a chance to interview them before they head back out into the world to await trial.

That's how it's supposed to work, anyway. I guess I'll see what the reality is in a couple of hours. This is both exciting and a little frightening. I stood up for three clients during my summer internship, but that felt much more familiar and controlled than this because I had so much more time for preparation of each case before going in front of the judge and because I knew all the people involved—the attorney I worked with, the prosecutors, the judge, the deputies in the courtroom, etc.—because I'd already spent literally months working in and around that courthouse. In contrast, today I'll go to at least one place I've never been (the cellblock) and I'll be working in a courtroom and courthouse wehre I've spent all of a couple hours. Sshh! Don't tell my clients!

I'll let you know what happens.

Posted August 25, 2005 08:38 AM | 3L