Court Observation Paper Report Sample

This court observation report is based on a trial that I attended on Monday November 17, 2014 as part of course work in business law. The goal was to observe two hours of actual live court proceedings at any local state courthouse in order to get a real-world experience in a courtroom, including interaction with participants, and to gain an appreciation and understanding of the litigation environment involving businesses.
The court case was ANGLO-DUTCH ENERGY LLC vs. CRAWFORD HUGHES OPERATING CO; a lawsuit of 3.5 million dollars over four oil wells between the two oil companies. I attended this grand jury trial at the Harris County Civil Court by Civil Court 152nd that is located at the 201 Caroline (Floor: 11) Houston, TX 77002, on Monday November 17, 2014. Apparently, there was a contract between the two companies over the four oil wells at Louisiana which was breached. After that, the Anglo-Dutch Energy Limited Liability Corporation-the plaintiff, sued Crawford Hughes Operating Company-the defendant over breach of the contract. The number of case is 2010-36322, that was granted Jury trial by Judge Robert R. Schaffer, who is handling case.
The jury trial began at 9:00 am on November 17th 2014. I observed that the Judge was not in a good mood from the start from his face. Both parties had four to five lawyers on their side and indication of the seriousness of the case. Although the lawsuit is about 3.5 million dollars, the judge only wanted to have the first trial over the 750,000 dollars. With that said, Plaintiff’s lawyer started with questions to the defendant that lasted my entire observation. I noticed something odd about the jury, two of them pregnant. I thought if a jury is pregnant, they could be excused from the jury.
As the questioning continued, the defendant’s lawyer stood up to object; the lawyer asks for a sidebar because defendants’ lawyer thought the trial was about 1.1 million that is part of the 3.5 million. The Judge gets angry and says “NO!! This is about 745,000, not for 1.1 million, that is a whole different issue.” After 5 minutes, the defendant’s lawyer asked for a Sidebar was again. This time, the judge gives the jury a break. As the jury stepped out of the courtroom, I could hear the entire conversation between the lawyers and judge. This time, lawyers were confused; the defendant is talking about 989,852.02 dollars and plaintiff is talking 645,000 dollars. The judge this time is yelling to both lawyers, “What part you two don’t understand? All that is a different issue and all I care about is that 745,000 credit right now!” This case was about joint account of the Anglo Dutch Energy LLC, whether they got their credit or not. Objection and Sidebar by defendant happen over eight times in the two hours of my observation. There was a record keeper in the court.
The judge looked at the side I was sitting focusing on then guy seated next to me. He yelled loudly, “Is that? Is that a witness in my courtroom? Why in the world is there a witness at the back of the court?” He said to Bailiff “can you please escort him out to the clerk’s office.” Bailiff escorted him out. My two hour observation ended.
Generally, I was glad that we students got the chance to conduct this observation as the course requires. I learned how a court process works in real-life. I was lucky to get into a grand jury trial. The Judge was mad at the defendant’s lawyer for being confused all the time. I would say thirty percent was out of control that was not too bad. However, I was confused to some extent because there were no details available to me and the lawyers were not making it clear enough. Nevertheless, all the court processes were followed in accordance with the law.