A Missed Feeling

Today I had court and on my docket was a motion hearing on a Felon with a Firearm. Now its been a while since I have had a motion hearing or a trial so I felt a little rusty. Come to think of it, its been six months. Being out of the everyday practice of law in court can take a toll on a person. Anyway, the motion was being handled by a defense lawyer whom I respect and in the past, he and I have had fun with our cases against each other. During the motion, I got a feeling that I hadn't felt in a while and boy did it feel good. That rush is like no other feeling that I know. I can honestly say that I have truly missed that feeling. That one motion hearing gave me an incentive to get off my ass and start getting my docket back in order. In the past few months that has been hard to do because nobody knows what to do to with a cripple system due to the aftermath of Katrina. So many facets of the criminal justice system is still in shambles here in New Orleans and the public defenders office is one of those facets. I think they are slowly coming back together again. Their office had to lay off so many people and it was ultimately reduced to six. Just so you know, there are twelve sections of court with two public defenders assigned to most of those sections and there are five sections of magistrate court. Six people can't possibly deal with all of that. There is also talk of consolidating the civil and criminal court systems. It has worked in surrounding parishes. Perhaps the same can happen in Orleans. I truly had fun today.....