Anna Schieffelin Blog #4

Today was my last day interning with Mr. George at the Pro Bono Law firm. I started the day with scanning closed case files from 12 different cases regarding child abuse. The first time I logged everything into the online database I screwed up, so I had to re do them all and re scan them over the past two days. After that, I accompanied Mr. George to court again and sat through like half a case before I was kicked out. The reason for this was because the family had a private attorney, so anybody who was not a lawyer on the case or the judge was asked to leave. The hearing lasted 2 hours and I just sat in the hall during this time. When we got back to the office Mr. George told me about the case, but I'm not allowed to reveal any details here because it is confidential. I also met a 13 year old boy who was going to court because he was being abused at home. He had been separated from his sisters and was having a hard time in the foster home. It was really sad to actually hear what he had to say because most of the cases wave the child from actually having to show up. I also saw some prisoners at the court house, chained up and everything. Later that afternoon I went to a building that is 51 floors tall and sat through a short seminar which taught lawyers how to work at the self help clinic that I've been helping at. That was all for today. Interning with Mr. George has been interesting and I've learned a lot, but I think I'm going to pass on working in the juvenile justice system.