Mae Duffyne Bollozos Vender

Law-1 Block C
Legal Ethics

Reflection

Being inside a court for me is a very interesting and exciting place, since I
realized that I was interested to study law and in hopefully in the future practice
law. I have both the opportunity to visit a couple of times a court and at the same
time, work in that environment for my college internship. I remember my first
court visitation it was for my Political Science class, it was there that I realized
that it is very different from the portrayals I see in the movies. The individuality in
handling the case from one case to another is not that private like we see in the
movies, so much so, that in the audience are councils lining up waiting for their
cases to be heard by the presiding judge. I even did not get to see cross
examinations because most cases heard that day were for a Motion Of Extension,
so its not really all that exciting. But it was when I started working for the court
that I enjoyed observing more and more everyday. I worked at the Regional Trial
Court Branch 6 Cebu City under the supervision of Hon. Ester M. Veloso and her
clerk of court Atty. Christine Poligrates, and while I was working for them they
encouraged me to observe court hearings since theyve known I was going into
law school and I appreciated that. My most memorable court observation during
my internship was for a murder case or a homicide Im not certain, and the
accused is a vigilante police officer, it was even rumored that during that day he
was on drugs because it is very obvious that he is trembling. I had the chance to
observe that because I was on log book duty that day. It is also a very unusual
court hearing because there are a lot of policemen outside the halls of our office,
standing guard in case there are any anomalies that might happen. As I was
observing the situation, the council for the accused presented evidence in court,
that was rather incomplete, and I remember distinctly that Judge Veloso warned
the council for the formers lack of preparation for the hearing. It was then that I
realized that it is not all cross examination of witnesses and constant debates from
one council to the other, is the only thing that is going on in a court, More so than
not, it is more procedural than that. Now, I understood why some cases go through
an extended length of time before it is determined because of the procedural
protocol that the parties have to follow. For me, it is truly a good opportunity to be
exposed in that kind of environment for me to be able to grasp the reality of court
hearing and legal processes.