I find covering court cases fascinating. But I hate having to rely on the timetable of the court system to get anything done.
Here’s a typical day in the life of a court reporter.
I show up at the courthouse at 9 a.m. for closing arguments in an attempted murder case. The attorneys are conferring with the judge, and then everyone has to take a break, and the hearing doesn’t actually start until 10:30.
When the jurors are finally brought in and the court is back in session, the judge starts reading the jury instructions. It takes more than an hour because everyone has to take a twenty-minute break half way through, and the word “firearm” has to be defined separately for every charge, of which there are four, and for every possible lesser charge or special allegation, of which there are many. Then everyone breaks for lunch. By this point, I am grinding my teeth, because I have just wasted the entire morning and I still need to finish and file another story today.
After a two hour lunch break, during which I have just enough time to write up my other story before rushing back to the courthouse, the attorneys actually make their arguments, and I can go back to the office with something to show my editors.
I wish that I could spew the definition of “firearm” word-for-word right now for dramatic effect. But I confess that I didn’t write it down and was too busy checking the time repeatedly on my cell phone and silently cursing to commit it to memory.
