Here is Hong’s memo which presented a great round-up of our class trip to the Champaign County Courthouse.
(1) If you want to keep good working relationship with officials of the courtroom, the first thing you should do is: learn the system. Associate Judge Rich Klaus said that in court they speak a foreign language. If you want to get things quick and right and correctly understand what is going on, you should learn “court jargons” first and try to speak the language that court officers speak. As a journalist, if you always ask stupid questions, it would be very hard to build trust and rapport with officials in the courtroom.
(2) I’ve also learned how to obtain court documents regarding specific cases in today’s trip. To obtain a case’s file, you must know the case’s file number first, which can be obtained by putting the individual’s name onto the http://cccircuitclerk.com/ website. Once you get the file number, you can go to the clerk’s office and ask for the documents you want. The juvenile delinquency, juvenile abuse and adoption cases are closed to the public.
(3) Another thing I’ve learned from today’s trip is courtesy. Mary Schenk, the court reporter from the News-Gazette, said it is very important to treat people the way you want to be treated. Always be polite and pay enough respect – not only to the judge, but also to his clerk, his security officer and other officials and employees. They are the “gatekeepers” in the courthouse and a court reporter must win their trust and respect to have long-term success.
