Clerkship - Day 1

I had orientation the week before, so day 1 was not so scary. My day went something like this:

--Met some more judges in the AM

--Toured the courthouse some more

--Got to work on affidavit judgments, which are basically what plaintiffs file when they sue for debt repayment. If the plaintiff provides proper paperwork and if the defendant doesn't show up to court, the judge will grant judgment for the plaintiff. So basically what I did was fill out the numbers and have everything ready for the judge to sign off. Mental note: If you get sued, then you better show up in court

--Then lunch with the judges and law clerks. I must say that was a lot of fun -- they like to joke around. A LOT. It's just funny the big difference from seeing them at lunch versus in the courtroom.

--Then sat in on some court proceedings. Got to see how attorneys did their thing. I heard there were other cool cases in the morning that I missed too. Something about a voodoo case and a lesbian lover case. Mental note: I should go sit in the domestic violence cases to see the interesting stuff.

--Then I worked on memos for motions. A motion is just asking the court to do something (like to dismiss the case, etc.). So I read through the motion and wrote a very brief summary. The summary includes a background, what the motion is, and my recommendations. This way, the judge can get a quick glimpse of the case if he doesn't have time to go through everything before the hearing. Only problem is...what if they think I'm a moron for recommending the wrong thing? I did 3 motions and I hope I gave the right recommendations. Not good to have them think I'm an idiot on day 1.