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Post by a2reed on May 3, 2005 17:25:47 GMT -5
Hi there! Wow, that's a great forum! I'm a big fan of all the Law and Order shows and I watch them whenever I can. I'm glad I've finally found a platform to discuss them. OK, now to my question I happen to be in New York in a few weeks and I thought this could be a nice opportunity to maybe visit a few sights and places where 'Law and Order' takes place... Now I wonder if it's generelly possible for me to enter the courtroom and watch a bit of some trial? OK I'm sure you can answer my question! Bye
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Post by a2reed on May 5, 2005 16:38:41 GMT -5
Can't anyone help me on this? The thing is I don't live in the U.S., so I don't know if (foreign) visitors are allowed in the courtrooms over there?
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Post by domenicaflor on May 5, 2005 17:33:42 GMT -5
A2reed: I don't know the answer either. It used to be that visitors could sit and watch some trial proceedings. I don't know if that is the case after September 11, 2001 or not. Here is the webpage for the NY Court System Help. You can email the Court Manager and ask. It also lists all the courts - you would want City of NY - Manhattan most likely. www.courts.state.ny.us/courthelp/index.htmlI would definitely recommend bringing your passport or some photo id with you as it will probably be required for entry. In addition, there are usually metal/weapons detectors to pass through, and there may be prohibitions about cameras, recording equipment, cell phones, etc. being brought into the courtrooms. Good luck and enjoy your visit. D.
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Post by Metella on May 6, 2005 6:48:20 GMT -5
Yah, I wasn't ignoring you either .... I just have no knowledge of this. I know in smaller American towns, you can just walk in and sit down and stay there all day and watch the goings on. It is much more Dull in real life AND the one day I was sitting in; it was a copy-write issue and they got continued ..... I couldn't come back; so I gave my email to BOTH attornies, saying I was interested in how it went - got NOTHING from them.
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Post by trisha on May 6, 2005 8:50:58 GMT -5
I had to sit through a bunch of criminal arraignments while waiting to fight a traffic ticket and saw some interesting stuff. One guy was brought in on warrants from 4 different cities, one for assaulting a police officer. He was also in big trouble for jumping bail, and his excuse to the judge was that he got shot, and couldn't appear in court. The judge went though his records and said that she saw where he got shot and couldn't make it for an earlier court date, but didn't see how that could have effected a court date many months later. His response was, "That was the first time I got shot, Your Honor." Never did find out how many times he's been shot, but it still made for an interesting morning. BTW, I did have to go through metal detectors -- twice, and was not allowed to bring in my camera phone. It may depend on the town, but I think that since there have been recent court house shootings, they lock them down pretty tight. I imagine you can still get into the building, but even in my home town courts, they have officers posted at every courtroom door.
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Post by BegToDiffer on May 6, 2005 12:29:08 GMT -5
Court houses are public buildings and as such, they cannot keep the public out. You will have to dance to their tune though, going through a metal detector, maybe providing ID, that kind of thing. Most of the time you can sit in a court room, but unless you know something about the case being heard and randomly pick a court room, you could get stuck with something very boring. Sometimes cases take forever just to get a jury seated, and they can drag on for days or weeks. So, if you only have one day, you will be left with wondering how the case ended. Remember, cases are not settled like on TV, it takes much longer for trials.
Just being called for jury duty nearly bored me to death. I was so excited, and ended up spending the week reading and watching TV. When I was finally in a group to be possibly chosen as a jurist, it turned out that I knew one of the lawyers and was dismissed. Good luck if you go. Hope you find it interesting.
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Post by a2reed on May 9, 2005 18:20:44 GMT -5
Thank you for all your replies domenicaflor that address you gave me helped me a lot Wow, do they have a lot of court houses in New York! Unfortunately they don't give out any e-mail addresses and it would be too expensive for me to call there. But from what all of you are saying it looks like I should be able to watch some of the trial proceedings if I show them my I.D. and all. Of course I don't expect to watch some high profile cases, I'm just interested to see a trial 'in real life', if you know what I mean. In fact I've visited my local court house over here in Germany a few times and the cases were always really boring (I remember one trial about parking fines or something) but I still found it interesting to see how it all worked. And if I randomly enter a court room and it turns out they're still in jury selection, I assume I can just leave and enter another court room, so that shouldn't be a problem. As far as metal detectors and all these restrictions are concerned - that also shouldn't be a problem. It's just good to know in advance, so I can leave all of that in the hotel.
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