How cool is that? Of course, I felt like I was going to throw up before the trial started but after it get started, things weren't too bad. And yes, I can do trials even though I'm not a real lawyer yet. I'm allowed to do minor charges (for example, today's trial was over an assault) in the provincial courts. It's like a scaled-down trial, there are no opening submissions, but I still get to cross-examine & question witnesses & do my own closing.
Though, nobody told me how much waiting I'd hafta to do - I ended up being in court from 10am-3:30pm and I STILL have to go back another day because we were missing a witness. Basically, out of the 5 1/2 hours I was there, only about 1 1/2 hours was spent on the actual trial. But - it was pretty neat. And really scary. I mean, you have someone's livelihood in your hands there. I don't think there's a serious possibility that my client would go to jail, but a guilty conviction could have serious ramifications for his future.
Well, at least I met my goal for today - not to get yelled at by the judge. Though there's always next time......
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