on the cheap and sleazy side (www.cheapandsleazy.net)

By Krista Burgeson, CSR, RPR, RMR, CRR, NCRA Realtime Systems Administrator; XHTML by G.D. Warner

A Week in the Life of a Federal Court Reporter

In Which Krista Burgeson Shares Her Work Week

 

Way, way back in 2014, Cheap and Sleazy alumnus Krista Burgeson had a sort of blog going during one of her big trials in federal court, and she wrote about it in her Facebook group, "The Place."

Naturally, I asked her if I could put it up on Cheap and Sleazy, and she said I could ... so, without further ado ...

-o0o-

 

United States Court Reporting Association Logo

United States Court Reporting Association Logo

FACEBLOG 0.0

I am going to start a civil realtime trial tomorrow morning for about a week and a half. I thought I would chronicle the events (not specific details) for you students in blog style. Today is Day O. Tomorrow will be Day 1.

Today I continued working on my trial dictionary after our regular status and motion call in the morning and separate pretrial conference at lunchtime for a different upcoming trial.

In my courtroom the Judge has both sides provide three sets of everything for the trial, which is a set for him, for the specific law clerk assigned to the trial, and for me. This includes all exhibits bound and numbered, deposition transcripts, any records (police/medical/etc., just not Breck or Ann), transcribed videos to be played, and copies of any electronic evidence. So I have plenty to make a big job dictionary, which I do.

I will note here that I received my deposit checks from both plaintiffs and defendant a week before our trial is starting, so last Wednesday, which is standard. I always receive a deposit (which usually turns out to be a close estimate) before trials and hearings. For regular orders I receive the check once I prepare the transcript but before they receive their transcript. Always. I never chase attorneys for my money.

I also did several dry runs of sending out my realtime late yesterday afternoon with multiple laptop computers I brought from home, that I had at the office, and co-workers. I have a plan and a backup plan. I have duplicates of all equipment.

Before I left today I set up the courtroom with a couple extra items -- a small folding table to hold the exhibit binders, a couple different lumbar support pillows, extra headphones, a clipboard with a seating chart, "most used" word list, and special briefs for people, places, and things that I made up. I brought in extra water bottles, fresh tissues, a bag of Skittles, highlighter and Sharpie, and that goes with everything else I always have stocked in my courtroom.

I am ready to go......so home I travel for a healthy dinner and good night sleep.

Report back tomorrow. MWAH!!!!

FACEBLOG Day 1-1

Got off to an early start and am downtown now. Going to get everything up and running in my office first, clear voice-mails and e-mails and job orders that have come in, have a bit of breakfast, and then head into the courtroom.

FACEBLOG Day 1-2

Gotta love it when everything hooks up and works perfect! Got realtime flowing to all 5 screens, everyone arrived ( out of state attorneys) and I greeted and met everyone. Made my speaker id's and seating chart. Got copies of a couple last minute exhibits. And the show was on!

We were picking 8 jurors for this case and so had 28 brought up. We went through the background questions with each and every one of them, and then specialized questions for this case. The jury took a break and the Judge listened to motions for cause to dismiss some jurors, and then out of those left, each side had three peremptories to use. And there we had it - our jury.

Started this morning at 8:30 and broke for lunch at 12:30, although I cleaned up my morning session, ended the file, restarted the afternoon session and brought over all my dictionary entries, etc., and turned the podium and my chair so when we begin at 1:30 (which is in 8 minutes) we are ready to go. I am now in my office for 7 minutes now eating a protein filled light lunch, stretching, returning only messages to my two sons as Brian is with me, quick potty stop and ready to roll.

We will do opening statements first, and then the plaintiff goes on the stand for the afternoon (we end at 4:30) and will probably continue tomorrow.

Sorry for any typos.....I have 6 minutes left now. Talk to you at the end of the afternoon session.

FACEBLOG Day 1-3

Okay. Done with Day 1. Tired, very tired. But happy, very happy.

When I went back into the courtroom at 1:30 the first thing I did was turn our 375 pound podium so it was facing the jury box. This way I can demand (yes, demand) that the attorneys stand at the podium and talk into the microphone during opening statements. After that I made sure I was ready, the attorneys were ready, and called the Judge and told him to come on out. We did a couple motions on the records and then the law clerk went to get the jury.

First thing we did with the jury is the Judge read them some preliminary jury instructions. He likes to do this to help them understand a bit about the law in this case before they begin hearing evidence. After that, we did the opening statements.

Plaintiff, of course, went first. It was great. Then defendant went. It was really great. I love opening statements and usually get wrapped up in them as I am so ready for the case to begin.

After that we took a short break. Now, every time we have a break I always do what needs to be done in the courtroom FIRST before I take care of my needs. So I re-positioned our 562 pound podium to now be at a diagonal so the attorney has the jury on their left and witness box on their right.....but I keep it pushed back enough so I can see their faces. I explain that I need to see their mouths -- and this truly helps. I swear we do a bit of lip reading in this job.

Everything was ready on my end, realtime flowing freely, so off we went.

The plaintiffs called their first witness, the named plaintiff in the case. She was sworn in and took the stand. BUT FIRST the Judge had to swear in her interpreters (two of them because she is going to be on the stand for so long they will tandem and take turns).

Direct Examination began. Now with this witness having an interpreter it really slows things down. I was writing under 200 WPM probably for most of the afternoon, although the Openings got up to 300, which was fun. The slow speeds usually make me bored and makes me want to look at my iPhone or something. But today I was all business and worked on my writing, and boy did I write great. All in all the total day was a success in that department as I never got above .3 untranslate, and that is with jury charge!

At 4:30 on the dot my Judge stopped the examination and we broke for the day. After the jury left we had about 15 minutes worth of motions, and then that was it. I still had work left, however. I usually spend about 30 - 60 minutes in the courtroom cleaning up both the a.m. and p.m. sessions at this time as I will now be sending it out to the parties and my judge. I also end the realtime, wrap up cords and equipment, and back up the two sessions in about 59 different ways. I make a point of not leaving the courtroom until all this work is done. I feel it is important.

Then after I lock up the courtroom (and go pee) I am in my office e-mailing the attorneys both sessions from today and adding a note regarding the subtraction of today's invoice for the live feed and then the rough draft e-mailed over to them and showing them their new balance with me. Then e-mail it to the Judge and law clerk, who will peruse it tonight and send me nice e-mails. Then upload it to the G:/ drive that our chambers puts everything on in case files. And then back it up again.

I am now getting ready to go home. Although I usually take public transportation, during trial we drive down. We? Yes, my husband, Brian Proofreadery Husband, works with me. He also keeps me fed and watered during the day (and we sneak kisses in the privacy of my office now and then when I need it, along with a shoulder rub). Tee hee. He actually does so much in my office I can't list it all here. We won't get home until about 7:30.

Considering we left the house at about 5:30, I would say this is a typical long trial day for me and I can't wait to do it again.

Another rule of mine is no working at night during trials, unless it is a daily copy for the final. So home I go, jammies, a light dinner, and bed. Talk to you all tomorrow for Day two.

FACEBLOG Day 2-1

Good morning. A little stiff this morning -- probably partly having such a long writing day yesterday and partly because of all the rain here in Chicago today and my ol' bones. Arthritis is a bitch.

Anywho, was downtown early today again with Brian. Got an e-mail from the Judge (anytime I hear from him before 7:00 I know something is going on) and we have an emergency criminal matter that we have to hear at 8:30 before we start our trial. Why does this matter? Well, by the time 8:30 came along I had planned to have had my realtime up and flowing to all five computers for at least a half an hour by then. I certainly can't send over a criminal case to them!

So I will contact the attorneys (have the paralegals' e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers) and ask them to be here earlier so I can get them set up and ready to go, all tested out, and then disconnect and prepare for the criminal matter. This will at least give me a little piece of mind that all connections SHOULD work well when I re-hook up after the criminal matter. (This will just be one of those rushy-rush things that I always try to avoid -- and I no doubt will end up having to take a potty break at this short break as well knowing me, even though my Judge will stay on the bench!)

As far as the trial goes, as you will remember we left off with the plaintiff on the stand yesterday at 4:30 when proceedings concluded for the day, and so I expect that is exactly where we will pick up. We had actually JUST gotten to the pivotal point in the plaintiffs' case when we had to break, so we will probably have to do a little backstepping to build up momentum again. I expect this plaintiff to be on the stand all morning, but we will see. There are five more plaintiffs after her and I expect them to all go in order.

Smelling the coffee Brian is brewing so I am off to prepare myself and then my courtroom! Talk to you at lunchtime! Make it a great day -- I will!

FACEBLOG - Day 2-2.

A very long morning. We did our criminal matter at 8:30 and then I barely got everything re-setup and we started at the stroke of 9:00. Finished the main plaintiff and then did two other plaintiffs that were direct only. Why direct only? Why would a defendant choose not to do a cross examination? Any ideas, students? There are several reasons.

The jury was dismissed at 12:00 for lunch. We then did some motions on our jury instructions and I didn't get into my office until 12:20, as I then set up for the afternoon. I always, during trial, have to make the decision of whether to eat, lie down and close my eyes, stretch, or e-mail/phone call/chat. Today was the second option as I can tell I am getting an ocular migraine. If you have never had one it is very scary and is almost like a stroke.

Brian gave me the required aspirin and I popped some meds, but am up now with five minutes to go. Luckily I have the choice of an energy shake that we made and brought down today (along with a bunch of other choices) and so I am drinking that now and then will head into court. I hear it is going to be a "doctor afternoon" which is fine with me as I love medical and don't hear enough of it. We will probably finish the other three plaintiffs tomorrow morning and maybe an expert in the afternoon before the weekend. Gives the jury something to think about .....

Gotta run. Hope everyone's day is going good. I could call in another reporter, you know, to happily cover this afternoon session, but I am going to tough it out and go get 'em!

FACEBLOG - Day 2-3

Tired. Exhausted. Tired.

Okay. Now that that is out of the way, here is how the rest of the day unfolded:

We did another plaintiff, this one live from Santiago, Chile, and then a doctor (kidney) live from Lima, Peru. Thick accents.

We then had a live doctor (heart) in court. A couple motions, and that was the day -- although we went a bit late.

The attorneys have told the Judge they have cut out their 3rd expert witnes each, so each just 2 experts for next week. Tomorrow will be full of the last two plaintiffs and some character witnesses.

I uploaded to my dictionary. Cleaned up both the a.m. and p.m. sessions to e-mail the PDFs to the attorneys, as well as my Judge and law clerk, and then uploaded to our chambers' G:/ drive, as well as back up 144 different ways myself.

We are earlier than yesterday and that is good......traffice was a bitch last night. We are taking a backup drive home with us and a jump drive. I have a bit of paperwork to look over tonight, but will attack NONE of the MANY orders that have been coming in. YIKES! This weekend won't be fun. But that's what happens when you are on trial. Over and out for tonight. Grabbing our tea and heading for the parking garage.

FACEBLOG - Day 3-1.

Good Morning, Placers!

Why am I chipper? Because today is Friday. If this had been our "usual" trial we would have started on a Monday, which means today would only be Wednesday, and I would NOT be chipper. So there!

So in my "Thank you, we received the PDF, everything looks great" evening e-mail from one of the attorneys it was mentioned, again, that we may finish early ...... like by Tuesday of next week as opposed to Friday! That's good and bad. Good, because five full days of realtime trial is enough to make the best back ache, and good because I have a pile of work piling up on my desk, but bad because I am enjoying working with this great group of professionals during this very interesting trial, and bad because a shorter realtime trial means a bigger refund check to both sides next week. Oh well.

You really have to learn to roll with the punches in court reporting. Nothing is really set in stone, be it in court, in a deposition, CART, or any of the other genres of court reporting. I glanced at our chambers' calendar (which lists everything for all six members of our chambers: Judge - Court Reporter - Deputy Clerk - three Law Clerks,) and it shows a couple straggler cases popping up early on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday looks clear (possible day off???? do I dare dream????) and then my very wise Judge has started setting cases for motions and statuses and hearings to be heard on Thursday and Friday, and we are looking b-u-s-y! So even though my work will be done with my trial, my work will not be done in this courtroom! Plus, depending on the verdict, of course, I may have a final transcript to prepare in short order.

I am blessed to have such a busy docket and hard-working Judge. I also see we got assigned two more criminal cases, so those defendants will have to be arraigned for sure next week as criminal cases are on a "calendar" of their own which states when things must be done by for the defendants' Civil Rights.

So I believe we will be doing the remaining two plaintiffs today in court, a couple character witnesses, as I mentioned, I believe another treating doctor who will be remote (from South America again), and that may be the day. We shall see. But for now I have to send out some e-mails letting ordering attorneys know that I have received their Electronic Ordering Form but that I am on trial and will get back to them as soon as possible with an estimated delivery date that is NOT next day (that seems to be the order du jour lately) and that it will be next week sometime.

Check back in at lunchtime. Hope you make the most of your day and approach it positively. I have been involved in this great profession since I was little, as I come from a family who was involved in court reporting, and have been licensed myself since December of 1986....so 28 years. I must say I enjoy this job so very much and look forward to each and every day. Love what you do -- it shows!

FACEBLOG. Day 3 - Post 2:

Lunchtime break from a little before noon until 1:00. Sure wish it would be longer. Quite a morning -- lots of pages and hard ones at that. We did a Peruvian nephrologist with a lisp and then a Chilean cardiologist with a German accent. Then we had the main treating physician who was defensive and, in the end, broke down crying on the stand. We ended the morning session with the fifth out of our six plaintiffs starting her testimony. It will be a long afternoon. She is choosing not to use an interpreter and speaks in very broken English as she is from Lima and English is not her first language by far, as she admits.

My Judge is going to monitor the situation and bring in an interpreter if and when he feels that need has arisen.

As our pretrial conferences in my courtroom are VERY long and all encompasing (motions in limine, exhibits objected to, witness lists and objections to that, jury instructions, verdict forms, etc.) it makes the entry and moving of exhibits into evidence seamless during our trials. And as I have binders full of everything, I can just make a not to myself to check a particular exhibit (like an expert's CV, for example) if need be and I have everything at my fingertips.

So out of the three options I told you about the other day that I have at lunchtime I am picking the "lay on your couch and stretch and close your eyes" option, with Brian standing guard and at the ready.

Have a good afternoon, friends.

FACEBLOG - Day 3-Part 3.

Really feeling it now. Finished the last two plaintiffs this afternoon and did an expert nephrologist. Plaintiffs were very weepy and emotional. The doctor was very fast and technical. I love medical so I won't complain, it was just hard coming late on a Friday afternoon.

We ended at 4:30 and everyone was out of there so fast! LOL! I did all my regular things. Cleaned up the rough drafts, uploaded them to my chambers' G:/ drive and sent e-mails to my Judge and Law Clerk with the PDFs attached of the morning and afternoon sessions. And then e-mailed them to the attorneys and paralegals. I also tallied up these past three days in terms of pages and money.

A little cleaning around the courtroom - shutting off the ELMO projector and throwing aways the water cups used by the witnesses. Backed up everything 72 differents ways in my courtroom, my office, and what I am bringing home.

Now I am printing some dockets and e-mailed job orders and getting everything together to bring home this weekend to get A TON OF WORK DONE! But not tonight. Home, dinner, jammies, sleep. Transcripts will commence in the morning....but not too early!

For any of you students/reporters still following along, thanks. I am kind of feeling like I am writing for myself, but that's okay. Putting all my daily work events on paper has actually been kind of cool. I will continue until the trial is over.

Have a good weekend, my friends!

FACEBLOG - Day 4-1

Hope you all had a good weekend. I sure did. A ton of extra sleep sure felt good! A mani-pedi and some retail therapy didn't hurt either! And then the season finale of "Shameless" and season premier of "Game of Thrones" was a great way to cap off the weekend!

So I have been down at work since about 6:15 this morning. Mondays always entail a bit more work because the comptuers and etc. have been down for the weekend and one never knows how they are going to react when they come back up. So it is very important for me to get into the courtroom nice and early.

I will turn on the ELMO for the trial attorneys because it takes a good long time to warm up.

I will then boot up my computers and once I have opened my software and created today's file and established a realtime connection with my Diamante to my desktop (I also run a notebook at times).

I will jump on to the Judge's computer and get his CaseViewNet all set to go, followed by the Deputy Clerk/Law Clerk computer in the courtroom. Then I go through the X Panel, which is our sound system, and adjust/re-adjust every microphone to make sure they are as loud as I can get them without turning "hot" and make sure that the mics I want turned off are still off. Then I check my audio -- on my Diamante, on my computer's hard drive with AudioSync, and then my digital recorder that is set up with a separate mic and doesn't plug into the court's sound system (although it is wonderful!).

Next is to make sure I have all of my exhibit binders with dep transcripts ready to go in case they play a video or read into the record the depostion of someone who will not be at trial today so I can follow along. I also need to place on my desk within good view the caption, seating chart w/ attorneys' names and symbols, my briefs list for the "most used" proper nouns and things of that nature, and my court log, where I just down times and people and motions and when a stipulation is read into the record or an examination changes of a witness -- anything of import that happens during the trial.

Of course I will leave myself about 15 minutes before I am ready to go on the record (which is 8:30 in my courtroom) to make a cup of coffee and grab a Diet Pepsi for the courtroom, eat a Fruit & Grain Bar (blueberry being the choice of the day) and then take a bathroom break before heading back into the courtroom. OH! Did I forget to say I have to spray my hair with Static Guard? Yes. It is long and not in a pony tail today so if I don't spray it, with all the static in the courtroom I will look....well.....wild! Then in I go and it is time to get serious and down to business.

I believe we will finish up any straggler occurrence witnesses and then start the battle of the experts. We have three areas for experts and so I expect them to go today and tomorrow....but we will see. Weekends have a funny effect on attorneys during a trial and they will sometimes remove witnesses or testimony at the end after they have read through the reatltime transcripts and have seen what is already actually in the record and discussed amongst themselves. So I will have a much better feel at lunchtime where we are headed, but my educated guess will be we would push to finish the testimony today and then close (meaning do closing arguments by each side - opening close by plaintiffs, close by defendant, and then closing close by plaintiffs) followed by the Jury Charge read by the Judge. If so, our jury could be "out" - meaning deliberating - by lunchtime tomorrow........or I could be way off snd this trial goes for days more! LOL! One never knows!

See you at lunchtime!

FACEBLOG - Day 4-2

As you can imagine, things went haywire today. During lunch we had to hear other cases -- then internet was down. I was able to get my connection re-established but then no lunch break. At the afternoon break we heard another case that was an emergency. I did three experts - each more difficult than the last. Got out of court late and had some things I had to do with chambers back by the Judge. Exhaused. Did not finish witnesses so I will carry on tomorrow. Sorry for the short post. I am leaving now to battle traffic and get home and fall in bed. TTYL.

FACEBLOG - Day 5-1

Good Morning, Sunshines!!!

Sorry about yesterday as my details fell by the wayside as I just tried to get through the day. Wow, that was a tough one. The doctors were a geriatric nephrologist, a cardionephrologist, and a cardiopulmonary doctor. They weren't easy and they weren't "court reporter friendly.' Hmmmm. Anywhoooo, that is over and forward we go.

Today will be the last day of testimony. We had just finished the direct examination late yesterday afternoon of the final expert, so we will begin this morning with cross examintion. And then redirect. And then recross. And then further redirect. And then further recross.....if it continues as the other experts went.

I am hoping that after reading some stipulations into the record and moving some exhibits into evidence we will then be ready to start the closing arguments and that we can at least start them this morning. I LOVED how my judge told them before they left yesterday to remember they cannot quote from or publish to the jury ANY TESTIMONY from the realtime they have been receiving. He worked with me on a form that I have them sign before starting realtime feed as we have had that "issue" pop up in the past.

My judge is big on giving time limits for things (once we did a huge trial and gave the attorneys 70 hours each side for all their evidence - how confusing would that be for them to figure out?) and for this trial he is giving the plaintiffs' attorneys 75 minutes for closing. They have said they will break it down and do 60 minutes for their opening close and 15 minutes for their closing close, and it is usually in the closing close that they pull out the verdict form on a big blown up chart or put it up on the ELMO and write in the numbers (money) they would "suggest" to the jury so the defense can't rebut it. The defendant said he would only need 20 minutes, but my judge told him he could have up to 30 but now would not let him go over that time. As they (a corporation) have already admitted liability, as I told you at the beginning, this is simply for damages and so they feel they don't have much to say except try to minimize the payout.

After that will be the jury instructions, which I will of course have a copy of so I can read along as the judge reads out loud and I will keep in my "bench binder" -- and if I haven't told you what a "bench binder" is, make sure I do later. It is just about eight o'clock and so I have to rock 'n roll. I don't know if we will make this morning session a marathon and go straight through or if we will break for lunch, but I will let you know later!

Have a great day -- I plan to!

FACEBLOG. Day 5-2

Where were we? Okay.

So we started with motions at 8.30. Then OMG -- Judge wanted to slip in another case before the jury came out, and it was ex parte and under seal. So had to disconnect all realtime flowing out. Urghhh. Did the other case. Then when the law clerk is about to get the Jury I yell "WAIT" as I scramble to get everything attached again. OY! Can't believe it all worked.

So jury came in (of course after their coffee and goodies provided) and we had the last part of the last expert who was the last witness in the case. It was brutal. Fighting and yelling and talking on top of each other and too fast. My Judge knows whenever I turn my head slightly to look at him he needs to slow them down or have them speak up or yell at them - I never even have to say anything.

With that done, we had a quickie break and then heard 15 stipulations read into the record - that's a lot. Usually if there are any, it is one or two.

We then started closing arguments, and they were great. Remember how much I like to do opening statements? I do like closing arguments, I am just so tired for them. The plaintiffs' opening close went the full hour straight. The defense closing went the full 30 minutes straight. Then the plaintiffs' closing close went for the 15 minutes they saved. Did we break then? I sure had too! Nope! We went straight into Jury Instructions. And then after that, off my jury went with the Court Security Officer to order lunch and begin deliberating.

So I close up the file, clean it up a bit as I am going to send it out and upload it, shut down the realtime feed for now, back up the morning/lunctime session 55 different ways, but before I go to the bathroom and then to eat something I decide to open what I will call the afternoon session (although you never know when a note is coming or the verdict is coming) and I get that all set up and running to everyone, get the dictionaries in, etc., and I'm good to go.

Of course something happens, right?

In comes my Deputy Clerk saying the U.S. Marshals picked up a guy on a bench warrant for us and they are bringing him NOW! Shit. First thing I do is go and move that 946 pound podium around facing toward the bench (meaning me) and away from its position facing the jury, and check the mics. The Judge comes out and I have to fly with it and write in my realtime file for the trial as I am left with no choice. I see the Judge look at the realtime while I am writing and he sees the TRIAL ATTORNEYS' names coming up and he slightly smiles, knowing what has happened. So we finish that and I super really really need to take a break. It is almost 2:00 and I have been in the courtroom since 8:30. So I fix the file and make it the afternoon call -- and then re-set up again the afternoon trial session so it is ready for me. And then I run ........

So I just had a yummy chicken sandwich Brian made me from last night's chicken and pretzels and two Diet-Pepsis. You got that right -- two. Now do I work while I await a question or verdict from the jury or do I kick off my shoes and take off my jacket and lay down on my couch and stretch out while waiting? Hmmmm.......let you know.

FINAL FACEBLOG. Day 5-3

Hello, Old Friends.

This will be my last post in this format, although I must say I enjoyed doing this much more than I thought I would. It turned out to be a lot more of me telling a story, I think, than teaching, which is what I thought I would be doing. Maybe I made it too casual? Oh, well. It was one trial out of so many I have done and I wanted to share it with you.

So I never did lay down on that comfy couch of mine while awating a verdict. WAY too much stuff piled on my desk. Drives me kooky. Did mostly sorting and e-mailing and printing dockets, etc. Then our law clerk on the case let me know the verdict was in. I guess they had asked for a calculator shortly before the verdict. It was about 3:45. Both parties were hanging around either in the lobby on my floor, the courtroom, or the attorney/witness rooms (we have two for our courtroom) and so everyone assembled very quickly. My judge will let them leave the building but they have to be able to be back in the courtroom in 5 minutes after they get "the call."

Ha ha. Get it? It takes longer than 5 minutes to get through security!

We received our verdict. I always feel an embarrassed nervousness when the verdict is read. It is the soft side of me that feels bad for the "loser" I guess -- I have a hard time looking at them. After the verdict the judge asked if either side would like the jury polled. The losing side, of course, did. So the deputy clerk read off each name and asked them to stand one by one and asked them the question, "Was this then and is this now your verdict?" This makes the jurors individually answer out loud "yes" although I suppose they could say "no" -- I have never seen that though in 27 and a half years.

After that the Judge had the Court Security Officer bring the jury back to the jury room and wait for him as he likes to personally give them certificates of service and answer any questions they have. My judge DOES NOT let the attorneys ask them any questions or even talk to them. He says it is up to the judge in a federal case and he does not like to put the jurors on the spot.

BUT .... before he goes back to the jury he addresses the parties and asks them if there is anything they want to put on the record. The one side said "no" while the other side let the judge know they will be filing a motion right away to set aside the verdict as they felt the jury did not follow certain jury instructions. The judge said he will set the schedule for the motion pratice and put it on the docket. IT WAS THEN I KNEW .......

So the judge left to go talk to the jury and I got bombarded by the attorneys filing the motion saying the glorious words, "We want the entire trial transcript in final form as soon as you can do it!"

"Sure," I said casually with a grin, "My pleasure."

SO YAHOO AND YIPPEE FOR ME! They used up their deposits already on the realtime feed so now I will be sending out the new e-mails with the next deposit before I even start work on the final transcript. (BTW, the other side wants a copy!)

Thank you very much for following along. I don't suppose the rest of the motions, statuses, appeals, etc., would interest you much, so I will end my first Facebook Blog with this post. I hope some students learned something. I never knew all of this stuff when I was a student or just starting out and it would have been interesting to me.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. If anyone is interested, I start a juicy criminal trial on Monday morning, 8:30 a.m. of course, that should go for a week or so ....... cops, bad guys, fighting, shooting, drugs, that kind of stuff! LOL!

A day in the life of ............

-o0o-