My court visit started with difficulty. I’m not sure if it is something inherent in cities and their one-way streets, but it was quite difficult to figure where I needed to go to get to the courthouse; I kept ‘just’ missing it due to one way streets and ‘no turns.’ I ended up parking next to the bus depot, which gave me a good idea of how people who would need to use public transportation would get to the courthouse. Once I was finally past the security, it just a matter of deciding which court to start with. This proved harder and easier than I expected. Easier because I was able to walk into whichever courtroom I wanted, but harder because, even though to docket was posted outside each door, I had no idea what to expect on the other side of the door. The first time, going into criminal court, I was relieved to find myself in a buffer area where I had to go though another door to get into the actual courtroom. The doors themselves were very imposing; extra-wide and pretty heavy, it definitely made an impression as I made my way into each courtroom.
The first court I visited was criminal court. This was the most busy of the courts I visited, with people walking in and out on the both the private and ‘in-custody’ circulation sides. The courtroom was mostly square, with the door ‘in-custody’ defendants used at a slight angle away from the public, and facing the judge. This court was quite overwhelming as my first courtroom on a number of levels: the public benches were mostly full so I had to look to find a place before sitting, there were many attorneys sitting around waiting for their case to come before the judge (I was initially thrown off because some were sitting in the jury box), the typing of the court clerk was quite loud and constant as case after case was being presented, and finally I had major difficulty understanding the judge and hearing whoever was speaking from the counselors’ tables as they were facing away from the public, standing (because the cases were being moved through so quickly), and not speaking into the microphones. Along with that, people were moving in and out on the public side, talking, and someone’s phone even went off-the bailiff just asked him to step outside.
On the opposite end of the criminal court was the family courtroom. The procession up to it was quite different and gave an overall different feel before I even stepped into the courtroom. I had to go to the top floor of the courthouse and when I stepped onto the floor it was much quieter There was carpet in the main hall/circulation that kept things quiet, there were fewer people milling about, there were benches along some of the walls that allowed for someone to sit and not be seen and there was artwork on the walls. While it was quieter, it was not unwelcoming. The images and paint colors on the walls were fun to look at and interesting, but there was still that sense of “what’s behind the door?” that felt more consequential due to it being family court and knowing that emotions were potentially running high on the other side of the door. The case I saw was a very low key case, but very interesting as the father was self-representing while the mother had a lawyer. They were figuring out child custody and I got to see witnesses being questioned by both the father and the mother’s lawyer: it was very interesting to see how each did it differently and how, as the father kept leading the witnesses with his questions, the lawyer kept asking the judge to stop him. It was very interesting to the see how we got different pictures of the witnesses by how they were questioned and what picture was formed by the type and direction of the questions. This courtroom was octagonal so the public was more ‘involved’ in the case just by line of sight and because the witnesses were being called from the public seating.
Finally, I visited a civil courtroom-muuuuuch smaller (even the ceiling was lower)-and watched proceedings for renter’s who broke their lease agreement. This was interesting because the judge had a lot of attitude and seemed quite brusque, but at the same time, when a young man had been unable to pay his rent due to outside issues and his landlord still would not take his rent, she gave him advice and hope (which was more moving as she had been very removed from all the other cases).
All in all it was a very interesting day, it changed my romantic ideas of court and reaffirmed some others but one thing that really stood out was the use of daylight inthe courtroom-or lack of it. Each courtroom I visited had a pretty large window that either looked outside or in the case of the civil court which was on the lower level, the blinds were pulled and most people probably didn’t even notice it. It gave the courtroom a timeless feel as we had no idea where the sun was, but as a designer, I was just very disheartened and disappointed.
[space + justice] 