Reality: Expect the Unexpected

So pickup yesterday went mostly as planned, but you know what? The real thing is never as simple as the theory and that may be nowhere more true than when you're dealing with indigent criminal defendants. I'm leery of revealing too much about yesterday for fear of compromising my client in some way, but these things I will say:

Interviewing a client in lockup is tough. You're standing there, talking through the bars, basically shouting over the roar of the 20 other guys in the cell with your client. Your client will always have bad breath—count on it. He's been in jail for possibly as much as 24 hours and he has not had a mint, or brushed his teeth, or anything else in that time. But that's nothing. What's hard is the shouting, the fact that you have to hold your papers and write standing up, and the fact that your client probably doesn't trust you any further than he can throw you—especially since at least 5 people standing nearby can probably hear everything he says. And to top it all off, your client might be belligerent, or crazy, or crying, or any number of extreme things that you just can't simulate or prepare for in a theoretical way. So you can practice client interviews all you want, but until you've done them in conditions like this, you won't know what you're talking about.

Note: I've done 15-20 interviews w/indigent criminal defendants but none has ever been this challenging because I conducted them all in a Public Defender's office, sitting down across a table or desk from the client, with the door closed so we could talk freely without fear of anyone else listening in. Very very different.

Pickup can take all day, or just a few minutes. If you're an experienced attorney and you get lucky, you could show up to the courthouse at 12:30 p.m., pick up your client's PSA (if it's ready), interview your client briefly, get your case called in the first half hour, get your client out, interview him, and you're outta there by 1:30. Unfortunately it seems that many lawyers never interview their clients prior to arraignment so they can do the whole pickup process even faster. Not us. As students (aka: puppies) we're eager and earnest and we want to do the best possible job so we're there at 10 a.m., we run our client's record, we interview the client, we call people to verify information, we check on client's drug tests, we interview our client again to discuss anything we've learned, and then we sit in court waiting waiting waiting for our case to be called. I was actually one of the lucky ones yesterday: I was there at 10 a.m. and was mostly busy until 1 p.m., but then my case was about the 5th one called so I really was out by 1:30 p.m.

Luckily, I got my client out, but for a second I thought I wouldn't. I read my litany, I passed the prosecutor my business card, I handed the clerk my praecipe (basically saying my client agrees to allow me to represent him, since I'm a student), and I asked the court to release my client on his own recognizance. Everything was going swimmingly and then the prosecutor said, “Your honor, may we approach?”

Approach!? Wha!? Hey, this wasn't in my script, dude! You're killing my buzz here! Approach!?

But whatever, we approached, and since the approach was necessary I won't go into its purpose, but the prosecutor made a motion and a little argument, I countered, my supervisor (who thankfully followed us up to the bench) added one very important point I'd forgotten, the prosecutor had little response, I argued just a little more (basically repeating what I'd said and folding in what my supervisor had added), and the judge concluded to the prosecutor: “Denied.”

Ha! I just won my first sidebar!

Ok, so I'm totally making this sound like more of a big deal than it is/was, and it truly may have gone the other way had my supervisor not been there, but it was a bit tense, very exciting, and it definitely was a relief to not lose that little skirmish. After that, the prosecutor didn't seem to want much more from me or my client—she had no further argument against his release on his own recognizance so she just asked for a stay-away, we didn't object, and my client was free to go.

Although that was great, the day ended on a less-great note because I basically didn't get much out of my client in terms of a defense. As I walked my client out of the courthouse, I tried to convince him to come back to the office with me to discuss his case and develop a defense. He wasn't interested; he was free and he had places to go, man! But first, he needed a cigarette. I walked with him for a few blocks, stopping every few steps so he could ask someone new if he could bum a smoke. Finally I stopped at a street cart and bought a pack of cigarettes for him, then I sat him down and tried to get him to talk to me about his case. He was much calmer and more patient as he smoked, but he still didn't have much to say. After a few minutes of this and two cigarettes, he said he had to get going and what was I going to say? I told him I'd see him in court in a couple of weeks (and I told him over and over how important it was that he be there!), and that was that.

A good day. A challenging day. And even though this was all very small potatoes and not everything went according to plan, it felt great to return to the office knowing my client was no longer behind bars and that I'd had a hand in helping to set him free. We'll be back in court in about two weeks and I have a lot to do between now and then for the case, but for now, I'll consider this a good start for the year.

Posted August 26, 2005 10:55 AM | 3L