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Bara Alahmadi

I went to the Department of Child Support Services court (DCSS) in San Bernardino. The security at the front desk told us to go to the S1 room on second floor. We entered the room and sat in the back seats. There were a three cases and they went very fast to the point that I didn’t get anything about them. Therefore, I asked the sheriff if there is any other trial coming soon. She said it's Friday and usually we don’t have many cases in this day, but let me check with the other court. She called another court asking them if they have any case today and also the other room in this court, so she gave us the address for the other court and also gave us the direction for the second room which was S2. After that, we went to the S2 room and sat in the back. There was a trial between man and women. The women wanted that man to pay expenses I think for their daughter, so the court ordering place on payment $200 on the month. However, the man doubt because he works as a trunk driver and paid based on the weight of the load. Also, he had an older car and pay $400 for the rent + utilities. Finally, the judge said I am in the dark here, so I want to know more information from your expense, income, and everything from each of you on August 14. When the trial ended, I went to the Sheriff (his name is Aeron) and asked him who are those people sitting beside the judge, so he told me what are their jobs which were supervisors, court reporter and there was one called court something, I didn’t get the name, but she was responsible about documents.

My reaction: this is my first time going to court and it was a very exciting experience. I was surprised by the way that I had been treated because they were nice with us and so cooperative. When I entered the first room which was S1, I didn’t understand anything, maybe because the sound wasn’t clear and they talked very fast for just one minute. However, I understood the next cases. I noticed that the trials inside the court move very slow and take a long time. Moreover, the time between the sessions for the same case is far away, such as the aforementioned case, the judge made the next session in August 14. The Sheriff Aeron was very friendly with us and because of that I didn’t hesitate to ask him anything.

Next, we went to Superior Court of California County of San Bernardino. It was mainly civil and criminal court. There was a trial about website and internet problems. The judge gave them a new appointment on June 26. It was the last case, so we talked with the judge and he started to explain how the system is working. He gave us some example of malpractice cases. Also, he explained the difference between the Plaintiff and the defendant. Furthermore, in a civil trial, they need only nine of jury agreement, unlike the criminal case, they need 12 of the jury to agree because you have to be sure to send somebody to jail. I asked him a question, if there was a conflict in opinions between the judge and jury who would win? He immediately said the jury and from 90 to 95% the jury would win. He explained that he tells the jury about the low and the deal with the facts. After that, he was asked about the criteria of choosing the jury and said he/she needs only to be 18 or above and has no felony and there is no specific educational level.

My reaction: this building is very big and new. The employees were very helpful and told us where should we go and when. I liked how the judge was cooperating with us and tried to teach us how the court work. The aforementioned things changed my idea, to some extent, about judges because I have never thought that they would be modest like this.