I had just finished defending someone in a criminal case in judge Schwille's court. Since I had been appointed to the case, I took my pay sheet up to the judge, who was sitting on the bench, for him to sign. When I handed it to him, he asked me how many hours I had put down. I had put down two, because I had had to stand around the court and wait for quite a while. He said that was fine. At first I had thought I was only going to make $100. But since I had put two hours, I was probably going to make $200-$250. I was happy about that and left.
I walked to the clerk's office, just next door in the hall. As I was leaving the clerk's office, I noticed Rosa (an Hispanic clerk who worked for Schwille) in there. She had a pretty smile on her face. My wife Carolina was now with me, and I wondered if Rosa knew I was married to Carolina.
Carolina and I left and began walking down some stairs. Suddenly I realized I didn't have my briefcase with me. I was unsure whether I had left it in the courtroom or in the clerk's office.
I turned around and went back to the clerk's office. Embarrassed, I began looking around for the briefcase. I asked if anyone had seen my briefcase, but no one had. I walked back out into the hall, intending to go into the courtroom. But I saw that the courtroom was now a classroom, filling up with people. Not wanting to go in and interrupt, I stood in the hall for a moment, perplexed. I tried to look back into the corner of the room where I thought I might have left the briefcase. But I couldn't see.
A man came up and spoke with me. A woman (about 60 years old) was sitting next to him in a wheelchair. While I talked, Carolina walked up and asked me if I had put the right address on a petition I had filed. I wasn't sure.
The man (apparently a professor) said that if a petition to start a lawsuit was to be filed against someone, it was necessary to put down the address of any land owned by the person being sued. Such information was needed if the petitioner later wanted to try to get the land. I asked, "What do you do if you're not sure they own land? Do you put it down anyway?"
He seemed puzzled himself about the answer to the question. The woman in the wheelchair, apparently knowledgeable on the subject, didn't seem to think the petition should say that the person owned land if it was uncertain whether the person owned land. She thought the person filing the petition might be sanctioned for making such a statement if it turned out not to be true.
I noticed how old the building seemed, especially the brown wood walls.
A woman walked out of the clerk's office and asked me if I was the one who had lost the brief case. I said, "Yes."
I followed her back into the office, and she pulled out a suitcase from behind the counter. I told her that that wasn't by briefcase. Disappointed, I turned around and walked back out.
Copyright 2004 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
