Tales of the Fedora

The wheels of justice move slowly, at least that’s been my experience with the court system lately.  I’m not in trouble, mind you, I’m just tangentially involved in a situation where I’m continually called by the State to be present at proceedings, just in case they want to hear my side of the story.

So on Monday I was not legally required to be present, a legal document known as a subpoena, but I attended anyway, because I was asked by the defense attorney of the case.  Typically I’ve been subpoenaed by the prosecution to be present, and I had previously been served with papers declaring my appointment  with a trial for three days in February.  However, as things progressed on Monday, that date has apparently been changed.

The next hearing, similar to what transpired on Monday I’ll guess, is in March.  Without that hearing, the trial can’t proceed, so I’m no longer required (at least according to the General Prosecutor) to be present since no one else will be there either.  Still I think I’ll call their office a day or two before just to make sure.  I don’t want to risk being in contempt of court and paying  a fine and spending up to ten days in jail.  It’s just not something I’d prefer to do.

For the record, this was the second court hearing I’ve attended, and in no point have I actually testified for anything.  I got the feeling I was going to be called on Monday after the Defendant would have been dismissed, but things progressed a bit differently and I didn’t actually have to do anything.  Nevertheless, I’m expecting to be subpoenaed (once again) for the March hearing.  We’ll see how this pans out.  It’s very frustrating for me, and I can imagine it’s exponentially worse for the Defendant — it’s his freedom at stake.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 11:50 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.