Personal Narrative: A Personal Experience In Traffic Court

This week has been a mix of high pressure and laid back moments. Nevertheless, I am continuing to learn and enjoying my time in the office. After my first week, I am feeling even more encouraged to work and willing to stay longer than my minimum requirement because the environment exposes me to many people that are willing to mentor me. I saw that the district attorneys are starting to become more like friends and that makes me feel that I belong. When I arrived on Tuesday, my assigned Assistant District Attorney informed me that he is going to be in traffic court and I may want to go to Part 1 with another ADA, which is the incoming arrestee arraignments. Although Part 1 would’ve had more action, I choose traffic court so I can experience a different side of the law. Unfortunately, it was more laid back than I imagined,
Although there were interesting cases and even ones that I heard on the radio on my drive to downtown, I was getting hungry, tired, and unobservant from the tedious work and high pressure due to the volume of arrests. Fortunately, my hard work paid off because I got to watch my first felony hearing. It was the closest I have been to a trial-like situation. Here, my assigned ADA was conducting a hearing and a cop was questioned to provide the details of the case. I got to see the tactics in questioning and how the whole process works. It was interesting because this felt like something from a TV show.
Although the case and hearing was pretty straightforward, I noticed how the defense attorney was trying to defend the defendant in a no-win situation. What I did realize was that, he gets paid to be an attorney and what can he possibly do or say in such a situation? There really isn’t anything, and it doesn’t matter how good of a lawyer you are. I further discussed this with my ADA and he said it is an interesting aspect of criminal law system we