Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A Visit to Benton

I had occasion to go to Benton, La. this morning and observe the morning's court proceedings.  (Don't ask; teenagers do stupid things.  It's all fine.)   I learned some things.

1)  People will wear anything to court these days.  I always thought you were supposed to dress nicely for court.  I saw girls in sweat pants, girls in skin tight shirts with midriffs showing, guys in jeans and t-shirts...one fellow got sent home because he came to court in shorts and flip flops.  The judge was not amused.  The young man was sent home to change clothes and ordered back.

2)  The operations in some of the departments are chaotic, unorganized, inefficient, and run by rude people.  I'm sure not all of them are.  I suspect some nepotism might be at work.

3)  Killing an alligator without a proper license and out of season is a very bad thing. 

4)  I could never be a lawyer.

5)  Not everyone knows you can't bring a gun through the metal detectors at the front door.

It was an interesting and informative morning to say the least.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nepostism in Bossier? Surely you jest!

Mike Thiac said...

I regularly attend municipal court for tickets i've issued, etc and I don’t believe what a lot of people wear today. What Houston municipal courts will do if you are dressed inappropriately is give you some medical cloths (top or bottom, as required) to wear in court and you can turn them back in.

Two incidents come to mine. A beautiful 20 something walking into the court house in a matched set of pants and halter top. She had the body for it but I know the bailiffs wouldn’t let her near the judge. Then a few months ago I caught an idiot, err citizen walking into a court with half his underwear showing from a loose fitting pair of blue jeans. I stopped him, brought him into the hall and explained “Pull you pants up, this is a court of law not your club....”

I can see not requiring shirt and tie but this is getting ridiculous.

Tina said...

Heh. In my youth, I was a legal assistant in a small general law practice. We used to tell clients to "dress nice" for court and had them come to our office about an hour in advance. Bless their hearts, women would show up wearing strapless evening gowns and sequins, guys dressed for a night in the bars. They just didn't know - they were trying to be respectful but had not been exposed to normalcy. We would all scramble to find something in our own closets to give them.