My day in court

So, in my job I occasionally have to go to court. Most days in court are boring. Judge asks me questions, attorneys are asking me questions because they cannot remember the cases, parents are trying to look better than they are, their attorneys are trying to make them look better than they are, and then we all go home. Occasionally though, some parents will ask for a trial as they deny all allegations against them. And that is where all the action happens... ALL of the action, I mean people will go straight Jerry Springer during trials. So, anyway, I had a trial today, and the best part was that mother hired an attorney. Why is that important, you ask? Because most people who are in Dependency court qualify for court appointed attorneys, and they do a really good job. Plus, if the allegations are not true against you, the case will be dismissed based on evidence, not what type of attorney you have. My rule of thumb is, in Dependency, if the parent feels like they need to hire an attorney, they did something wrong.
So, today, we go to court. The State of Florida's attorney is Jill. Jill my kind of person, and by that I mean she is messed up and she knows it. Jill takes a smoke break every time she goes outside. Jill is getting married to make her fiance's rich family happy. She is letting her rich mother-in-law to be plan her wedding. She doesn't see the point in being married, she's in her fifties and already been married twice, but it doesn't make a difference to her, she's pretty laid back like that. When Jill goes up to ask questions she takes her time and reads over her notes. Sometimes her voice shakes when she talks, it makes me wonder if she still gets excited/nervous about being a lawyer. She makes me think she is like me, she probably replays arguments she gets into with people back in her head and thinks of different things to say after the fight.
The CPI is an awesome black lady, creole really, she's around my age. She is thorough, and her hair looks amazing, when I touched it without thinking she didn't slap me, she smiled, which makes me like her more.
The Judge is a female Judge. She has been known to hate DCF, she held one of my former co-workers in contempt of court once. She has been known to chew case managers up and spit them out. She is intimidating, but she smiled at me several times this morning, and that puts me a little at ease.
The mother's private attorney is annoying. He has a high pitch voice and has objected to every question Jill asked this morning. At one point, I thought the judge would just tell him to shut up already, she over-ruled most of his objections, but I mean, if he is getting paid $250 - $500/hr, I would hope he would put up at lead 100 objections no matter how stupid (and most of them were) they are.
The morning went very slow, we only got a few witnesses in, an although I could not get to speak, I had to sit there to be the client for the attorney... Long day..
Jill takes me and the CPI to lunch, you probably do not know how cool that is, but let me just tell you, that is cool. Most attorneys have nothing good to say to you, let alone talk to you outside of court. Jill bought me lunch, it was a business lunch, but in my opinion it counted. At lunch we went over the CPI's testimony. Jill fulfilled my life long dream, she asked me to be her unofficial co-counsel, to make sure she does not skip anything in the CPI's testimony, she says "I'm good". I am more than excited, this has made my day. I make an outline and some notes for myself, Jill likes them so much she takes them to the stand with her... we sit there the whole day and analyze the mother's attorney's witnesses and crack knowing smiles at each other. Mom has not been the best mother, at all. This type of thing has excited me, it had made me breath heavier and makes my fingers tingle, I am loving every second of making argument points and talking between the CPI and attorney. Hoping the Judge sees it as plainly as we are, but there will be no decision made today in regards to the case. Finally, court is dismissed until tomorrow and I am a case manager again, no more co-counsel... Ah, until the next time I get to go to trial...