A Day of Observation in Judicial Court- Part 5: Private Attorneys

Similar to the public defender portion, defendants and their loved ones waited in the hallway outside the courtroom until 10:30 AM. Fewer people were waiting this time, many of whom turned out to be relatives and friends of inmates from the county jail. No defense attorney ventured from person to person to take notes, as each client had their own attorney. 

When the pretrial session began, multiple attorneys joined virtually via a Zoom call projected on the large screen televisions stationed around the room. There were at least seven private attorneys present in person, with two to three joining virtually. Compared to the three public defense attorneys representing everyone at the first pretrial session, the difference in attorney presence was substantial. There were fewer defendants during this session because private attorneys tend to speak on behalf of their clients. Private attorneys introduce themselves to the judge because, unlike public defense attorneys who work in the building, they come from all over. Many of them were likely interacting with Judge Case for the first time. 

Many of the processes, such as discussing plea deals and additional time requests, were the same across public and private attorney sessions. There was a notable decrease in the casual sharing of information and post-court conversations between the prosecution and defense. This is likely due to a lack of comfort that comes with working at the same place. Private attorneys left once their clients’ case was discussed, while public defenders stayed to cover their broad range of clients. Private attorneys were more prepared as a whole, likely because they didn’t have to focus their energy on multiple clients at once. This wasn’t without exceptions, as one lawyer didn’t show up to the court session, and a five-minute break was taken to contact him. Another lawyer joined from a busy location and projected a photo of herself at the beach with a sunglasses tan line as the background. One even walked into the courtroom with her hair wet. It was certainly more relaxed than I had anticipated.