I was subpoenaed recently to testify as a witness in a DUI case a couple of weeks ago in my local County's court. I was absolutely appalled at the lack of "order in the court" during my day there. There were people dressed very very inappropriately, there were people talking the whole time during some of the cases. There were people in an out of the courtroom all day. There was lots of noise out in the hall, which the deputy tried several times to quell. She kept going out asking people to be quiet and move away from the door. No one paid attention to her. There was lots of talking going on amongst various attorneys, court personnel, etc. during the proceedings, while the judge was talking. There was cell phones going off left and right.
Needless to say, I was shocked. The whole procedure, from the time I got there in the morning, having to check in, in a packed wall to wall room with no air conditioning, waiting for instructions, to what I witnessed in the courtroom just amazed me. Oh and the case I was there to testify about got dismissed and no one told me, so I sat there in the courtroom waiting and waiting. I finally got up and asked the guy sitting next to the judge what was going on and he was like oh, that case was rescheduled. It would have been nice of them to announce that in court. None of us sitting there waiting to testify knew. The whole day was a fiasco.
We sat next to a reporter from InSession and she plugged her laptop into a power strip that was in front of us! I believe they have a few such power strips scattered about the courtroom just for this purpose. The media was allowed in first to set up and more than a few of them were 'plugged in' so to speak.
