Posted by
NotInsaneYetAbsurd on Monday, June 25, 2007 7:06:38 PM
I am supposed to appear in court tomorrow, which reminds me .. . what is up with our courts?
Having become fairly familiar with court of late, I am disturbed by the complete inefficiency brought about by all of the kowtowing we do to defendants.
What would be so wrong with requiring defendants to decide whether or not they will plea a few days BEFORE their court date? Even 24 hours in advance would save untold wasted time.
Instead, potential jurors, witnesses, victims, and police officers waste their time and interrupt their schedules to respond to court only to be told, at least an hour AFTER they were required to appear that the Defendant has decided to plea or the attorneys are not prepared. It's asinine. There is absolutely no point to it whatsoever.
And I DID write my congressman about this, several months ago. There were a couple of other items in the email too, but the fact that I never received any response, not even an acknowledgement that my concerns would be considered, just pisses me off.
What is the appropriate way to fix ANYTHING in our government if something so obvious and seemingly fairly simple, can't be addressed?
Yes, I get paid to go to court. Big deal. It interrupts my whole day. I used to wonder why everybody fussed about going to court so much, because we do get paid. Now, I understand. Far more often than not, I am subpoenaed to appear at 8am and, at least in our municipal court, we sit in a room and wait until 9:30am to hear even one bit of information about whether the case is going to be heard that day or not. Usually it's not. So, I got up, got dressed, sat through an hour and a half of boredom, all to cater to the person who wouldn't be in court if I didn't for darn sure believe he/she was guilty.
Okay, I rant a lot. But, seriously, the waste of money and resources is astounding. And the poor jurors who have to get off of work and then wait and see if they will be chosen for jury duty. Ai-yi-yi!