I go to trial for the first time tomorrow
It's only a bench trial (no jury), but it's still a trial.
It's for one of my cases in the Children's Rights Clinic. My clients are two young kids (6 and 8) who have been in the State's care for over a year. Considering all they've been though, they are doing awesome, but it's still pretty sad. They don't even want to go home to their parents at this point and just want to be adopted so that they won't be in limbo any more. It is so rare in cases like this where kids that age no longer want to go home.
So tomorrow we (the DA's office and the CRC) are going to trial to terminate the parent-child relationship between their father and my clients so that they can be adopted. He's locked up in the Federal Pen and won't be there in person, but we still have to prove the elements of constructive abandonment (mom in the case has already stipulated to another ground for termination so we don't need to worry about her).
I finished up my opening statement, and have most all of the questions I expect to ask the witnesses prepared. I'm sure something will come up, but I was preparing for this trial last week instead of studying for the MPRE, so I should be able to be on top of it.
I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous. Although I'm also pretty stoked that I get to first chair my first trial before I even graduate law school.
And I can't help but think how different my path in law school has been than I expected it to be when. I never saw myself being a litigator, much less putting on a case in a real trial before I graduated.
It's for one of my cases in the Children's Rights Clinic. My clients are two young kids (6 and 8) who have been in the State's care for over a year. Considering all they've been though, they are doing awesome, but it's still pretty sad. They don't even want to go home to their parents at this point and just want to be adopted so that they won't be in limbo any more. It is so rare in cases like this where kids that age no longer want to go home.
So tomorrow we (the DA's office and the CRC) are going to trial to terminate the parent-child relationship between their father and my clients so that they can be adopted. He's locked up in the Federal Pen and won't be there in person, but we still have to prove the elements of constructive abandonment (mom in the case has already stipulated to another ground for termination so we don't need to worry about her).
I finished up my opening statement, and have most all of the questions I expect to ask the witnesses prepared. I'm sure something will come up, but I was preparing for this trial last week instead of studying for the MPRE, so I should be able to be on top of it.
I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous. Although I'm also pretty stoked that I get to first chair my first trial before I even graduate law school.
And I can't help but think how different my path in law school has been than I expected it to be when. I never saw myself being a litigator, much less putting on a case in a real trial before I graduated.