Week 16

It's been quiet these days at the office. The dreaded 6-day trial isn't happening, as the file is being settled. Most files do get settled before the trial, and judges are generally happy when you can figure things out by yourselves.

On the other hand, I've been kept busy running to the courthouse almost daily since Thursday last week, trying to get a divorce certificate.It takes 30 days before the courthouse issues a divorce certificate. This is because you have 30 days to appeal judgments, which means a divorce ruling isn't "final" until the appeals deadline has passed.

At any rate, we needed this divorce certificate NOW. Checking the court plumitif showed that the certificate had been granted, so I was promptly dispatched to the courthouse to pick it up.

Of course, nothing is simple, and at the Courthouse, I was informed that the note means a divorce certificate has been approved to be issued (which was last week), but it hasn't been made yet.

OK, well, I need it urgently, so is it possible to have it quickly, pretty please?

It turns out that the lady who does them is pretty busy, but it'll be ready by the middle of the next week. Can I talk to the lady? Actually, she just left.

It was 3:50 PM.

That was Thursday of last week.

On Friday, I made a trip again. This time, the lady in question was absent.

Monday afternoon, courthouse again. Oh, she was there this morning, but left for an appointment. Can anyone else help me? No, she's the ONE person who prints the certificates.

Tuesday, I decide to stay in the office and give her a call. Calling her extension brings me to her voicemail. I call the general line for that service counter, hoping to talk to someone who can get her one the phone. Lo and behold, she's the one answering! Can she help me?

No, glitch on the computer system, she can't access the court record. Ugh.

Wednesday. I go there. She's not there. Again.

Finally Thursday morning, I get a call. I got my divorce certificate!! Would I like to have it mailed?

NO THANKS, JUST HOLD ON TO IT, I'LL BE THERE IN 20 MINS TO PICK IT UP KTHANKSBYE!

Week 14 still

Things I will need to do: hand in mid-internship evaluation by next Friday.
Apply for a background check and hope that there's no deadline to submit the certificate.
A stiff drink.

Today has to be the most ridiculous days I've had at court. We went in, Power Lawyer and I, at 9AM for role call, to present a motion. Since we served our notice of presentation Tuesday, we were at the end of the list, so had to wait until about a hundred cases got called, then it was our turn.

Get in the courtroom with the judge, there's already some cases before ours, plus since we've scheduled 55 minutes of pleading time, we're put at the end, after the shorter motions.

So we just waited until all the cases are over, which actually didn't take that long as there weren't that many today. We then looked for the opposing lawyer, who wasn't in the room, and it turns out that she was in another courtroom, and she was actually triple-booked, with two cases pending in this room.

The judge was not particularly happy, as we were wasting valuable court time, and she couldn't refer any of us to another judge.

With all this, we were not able to get started before lunch break, and had to come back at 2PM. Unfortunately, the judge wasn't there, and didn't get there until 3ish, as she had another case to deal with.

Our own 55-minute thing ended up being much more than that, as we had some trouble figuring out the exact facts.

There was a lot of back-and-forth, but the judge was not convinced. We ended up being at court until 5 PM, which is really late for court, and didn't even get a ruling.

We were told by the judge to come up with a consent agreement by tomorrow...