We are lawyers... NOT!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

If mistakes are truly the best teachers, then we are learning a lot in our Practice Court class. However we put it - rookie missteps, case of jitters, oversight - mistakes they are still and quite a few of them made me cringe.

Take for instance what happened during the cross-examination by the defense counsel only a couple of weeks ago. The prosecution objected to the questions on the ground that they were "leading". That to me takes the cake and it is representative of the many mistakes we are witnessing as this course progresses. Evidently, we are not yet lawyers, but it's good for our sake and our future clients that we are not. Hopefully, when we get our license, we won't commit the same faux pas.

With respect to the civil case, initially I felt it was a big letdown because I had imagined a compelling storyline with twists, intrigues and suspense like a well-written legal thriller. But, alas, the mock trial turned into an ordinary "he said, she said" affair that had an anti-climactic ending. On second thought, however, it's just as well for in the real world legal issues are rarely the page-turners they are made out to be in works of fiction. More often than not, cases drag on not because the legal question involved is complicated, rather because parties refuse a simple ending like accepting a settlement.

Which brings me to another sober reality: There's a world of difference between analyzing a question in an exam and making quick decisions in the courtroom. At least in the former, you can afford to take your time somewhat to chew on a question and frame your answer. In the latter, you need to be always alert and ready to spring up to object and pounce on an opening. This may strike some as a moot point, but to me it is a reminder that in actual practice the pace is faster, the stakes are real and the cost of sloppiness could mean the difference between freedom and the electric chair.

This is the closest to the real thing and it helps that the trials are being conducted in a real courtroom. If there ever was a time in all my years in law school that I felt almost like a lawyer, it was at 10:30 every Saturday morning during the past 3 months. Putting to actual use Rules of Court that until recently we can only read in textbooks beats any high you get for scoring big in Remedial Law.

Sure there are many slip-ups and I made a few of them during my stint as defense attorney. But there's a reason why this course is called Practice Court and it can be summed up by the following question:

"Is it not the whole point of this exercise?"

Leading your honor!